The Lethal Summer
by Cossacks250
Summary: It's Tinkerbell's second summer on the Mainland and with Lizzy and her father, but when something unexpected arrives, Tinkerbell and her friends will be thrown into a fight for surival in a situation that threatens to destroy them and the Mainland. OC's
1. Prologue

**Note: I do not own the Tinkerbell series**

A new day had dawned for the Mainland. The sun was shining in the blue sky that seemed to stretch on forever in all directions. A gentle cool breeze blew through the air and the green leaves on the hundreds of trees scattered about the many fields and woods below them blew with it. The grass swayed in the breeze like tall spears. This was a perfect start to a summer day.

High in the sky above the Mainland below, two stars, though only just visible as they followed the Sun through It's natural travel through the day, shone brightly in the air. If anyone did manage to spot them, it would be almost impossible to know that the second star on the right, which was lower down than the other, was the home of the fairies of Neverland. Every season, the fairies would come down to the mainland to bring the season of that time of the year to the mainland. For the fairies, it was a great time of year to come to the Mainland.

Then, a wave of gold light seemed to sweep down from the second star, only rather than spreading out and crashing down like a normal wave would, it came down in a kind of line that swivelled and turned sideways several times as it approached the surface. Then, it suddenly made a sharp left and went dead straight towards a large tree just a few hundred metres in front of them. As it moved towards the tree, the long thin gold line of light passed over a small cottage placed near a small dirt road, a tiny spot of gold light came to a halt. A few more spots of gold light also came to a halt in mid-air and flew back over to the first.

These spots of gold light were actually fairies themselves. The first of the fairies, the first that had stopped, was early adult looking with blonde hair that was tied up in a bun at the back of her head, blue eyes that looked like the colour of the sky and a pretty face with a small nose, soft cheeks and small red lips. She was wearing a green dress that had been a leaf and on her feet were small green slip on shoes, both of which had a small cotton-like ball at the end of them. Her name was Tinkerbell.

For a moment, Tinkerbell hung in the air above the cottage, a feeling inside her telling her to go down to it, but before she could even think of what to do, another group of fairies flew over to her.

"C'mon, Tinkerbell," one of them, a red haired, which was thick and came into a kind of curl at the top of her back, fairy with green eyes and who spoke in a kind of southern accent and was wearing a dress that was actually an upside down rose in different shades, said in a motherly kind of way as if she was a mother pulling her child away from a sight they found awe-inspiring. Her name was Rosetta. "We do have work to do y'know,"

"I know," Tinkerbell replied in a slight kind of desperate voice. She sighed. "I just really want to go and see them quickly,"

"Don't worry, Tinkerbell," another of her fairy friends, an African early adult woman with black hair that braided into a bun at the back, amber coloured eyes and was wearing a yellow dress made out of sunflower petals with a sun flower seed placed on the front of the chest part of her dress and had yellow slip on shoes on her feet, reassured her, resting a hand on her shoulder. Her name was Iridessa. "You'll be able to soon,"

"Yeah, you're right," Tinkerbell agreed, heaving a heavy sigh.

"Don't worry, Tinkerbell," another of the fairies, a woman with a kind of dark orange coloured strap on shirt with a brown skirt around her waist and dark orange leggings going down her legs to her feet where she had orange slip on shoes on her feet, amber coloured eyes and short light brown/orange hair which had a long ponytail cascading down to the centre of her back and a kind of dark green twig as a headband, piped up. Her name was Fawn. "Now, c'mon. Race you guys to the tree!"

Before anyone could reply, Fawn took off in the direction of the tree after everyone else.

"Oh no you don't Fawn!" the last of the fairies, an East Asian early adult looking woman, who was wearing an upside green/blue lily dress with blue slip on shoes and had black hair that cascaded almost down to her feet, and brown eyes, exclaimed eagerly as she took off after her. Her name was Silvermist. The rest of the fairies took off after Silvermist and Fawn towards the tree.

As they approached the tree, they saw a small circular clearing on the ground near the base of the tree. Several other fairies, both male and female, were waving leaves, one in each hand, in the air to show the doves, which some fairies were riding on but most had large boxes made out of leaves and twigs tied to them, where to land. One-by-one, the birds, large to the fairies, landed in the clearing and the supplies they were holding were taken off by other fairies. Fawn landed on the clearing, Silvermist and the others close behind.

"First place!" she exclaimed as the rest of the group landed.

"Only because you started it early," Silvermist replied.

Fawn shrugged. "Well," she said in a mock guilty voice.

Tinkerbell rolled her eyes. As she did, a particular dove that was coming in towards the clearing caught her attention. It was packed almost to the point of where it would not be able to fly with supplies and there were two other fairies on the dove as well. One was large and had black hair and amber coloured eyes. He was dressed in a large green top made out of a leaf and a pair of green shorts and a big pair of green shoes. He was called Clank. The other, sitting on his shoulders but was also hanging onto the rope that was keeping the supplies tied to the dove, was shorter than his friend with messy red hair on his head. He too was wearing a green shirt made out of leaves, but had a few tiny sews in it to repair past tears, and a pair of green trousers that went down his legs to just below his knees and a pair of green shoes. Over his eyes were a pair of large goggles and had water droplets to act as lenses. His name was Bobble. He was shouting something to his friend as he hung on for dear life, his accent being Scottish, and Clank, who had a Cockney accent, shouted something back in reply.

_Better move out the way _Tinkerbell thought and she stepped backwards.

The dove landed with a thud in the clearing and almost fell over sideways. Some of the boxes and other supplies fell off the dove onto the ground.

"Smashing landing, Clank!" Bobble said sarcastically.

"Thank you again, Bobble, Clank replied.

Tinkerbell chuckled. "I think you guys have over packed again like last time," she said.

"Yes," Bobble replied. He let go of the rope and fell off the dove to the ground. Luckily, a box that had fallen off broke his fall but it still hurt. "Oooowwww!" he groaned as she sat up and rubbed his head.

"You alright?" Tinkerbell asked him.

He nodded. "I'm okay," he replied and got up. "C'mon, Clank, we better get this stuff unloaded,"

"Right Bobble," Clank replied enthusiastically and the two began to set at work with unloading the supplies.

Tinkerbell sighed and walked towards the small doorway that led into the tree where the fairy camp was placed. As she approached it, she gazed around at the clearing. Another two doves landed nearby, one carrying another load of supplies and the other a large object that was covered with a large thick leaf. A group of fairies rushed over to help in unloading what had just arrived. She smiled. It was good being back on the Mainland. This was her second trip here in the summer, the last being the year before, and it was a really eventful one.

Tinkerbell pushed aside the leaf doors when she reached the entrance and gazed around at the enormous camp inside the tree. Everywhere, there was activity going on. A male fairy walked by, pulling a wagon of berries. On a branch not far above them, a fairy wearing a yellow dress was gathering spider silk that was placed between two smaller branches protruding off from the one she was standing on. To her left, Tinkerbell saw a fairy teaching a group of crickets to chirp. She smiled again. That was one sight that was not different to her. Every fairy had different talents. Hers, for example, was a Tinker, one who would build things for the fairies, and her inventions over the past year had really helped speed up bringing seasons to the Mainland. There were other talents as well, much as water fairies, which her friend Silvermist was or animal fairies, which Fawn was, light fairies, which Iridessa was and garden fairies, which Rosetta was. Every year, all of these talent fairies would work together to bring the season to the Mainland. Oh, it was good to be back.

"Hey, Tink!" someone exclaimed.

She turned to see a familiar face standing there. He was a man with short blond hair, blue eyes and an acorn cap on his head to act as a hat. He was wearing a kind of gold coloured shirt and a pair of red shorts, the top of them being covered by his shirt that draped down over the top of them. A belt was wrapped around his waist. He had a sleeveless red autumn leaf kind of jacket over his shirt and a pair of small boots that were made from the remains of old roots. He had a leaf bag with a strap around his shoulder.

"Terence!" Tink exclaimed and the two ran to each other and hugged. "It's good to see you,"

"You too," he replied. They released each other. "I've just gotta go and deliver some pixie dust," he said to her.

"I'll come with you,"

"Alright then,"

They walked from the entrance into the busy camp. They passed a fairy working on the bee liner machine and watched as a one of the bees passed into the tiny gap between the two cotton pain tops, both soaked in black paint, and the fairy spun the machine and painted the bee pattern on the bee hovering in the middle of the machine. They passed another two fairies that were loading grapes and nuts into two more wagons.

"So how have things been with working on the pixie dust?" Tinkerbell asked him.

"They've been okay," Terence replied. "Fairy Gary's been bossy with everyone about making sure you take the right amount, but other than that, It's been okay. And what about those two Humans we all met last year? Have you seen them?"

"Not yet, but I'll try to later on. I wanted to earlier, but the others reminded me of coming here first,"

Terence chuckled slightly. "Trying to keep you busy,"

Tinkerbell shrugged. "Probably,"

The two came to a halt outside a large wooden sphere-like building with a circular hole in the front. A fairy was standing behind the hole and Terence handed him the bag.

"Here's the first week's supply," he said.

"Thanks," the fairy replied and he pushed a small leaf to him and took the bag of pixie dust into the building.

Terence signed a little signature on the bottom of the leaf. "Right, I've got to deliver the next supply to the other fairy camps," he said to Tinkerbell. "I should be back soon today,"

"Okay," she replied and gave him a quick hug. "Take care of yourself, Terence," she said.

"You to, Tink," he replied, returning the hug before they released each other and Terence flew off, disappearing into the leaves above them.

Tinkerbell sighed. There was not really a lot for her to do at the moment. Her friends were probably busy with their work. Probably the only thing she could do at the moment was go and help Bobble and Clank unload the supplies.

Suddenly, as she began to fly off towards the entrance, a sudden loud bang from somewhere outside filled her ears. A few other fairies noticed it but quickly went back to work. Upon hearing the noise, Tinkerbell smiled and shot up towards a hole in the leaves above them. She poked her head up from underneath the leaves and looked out in the direction of the cottage. A small dot from far away on the left approached the cottage. As it came closer, she saw it was a car, or a carriage as she and the other fairies called it. Sitting in it were two familiar Humans she smiled at upon seeing.

One of them was a tall man with brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing a white shirt with a tie, a green sleeveless top that looked like a dinner jacket and a pair of grey trousers and black shoes. His name was Martin Griffiths. The other Human, a young girl of about ten with short brown hair and green eyes and was wearing a pink shirt, a white vest-like top over her pink top with a white skirt and a small pair of red slip on shoes, was called Lizzy Griffiths. Tinkerbell knew both of them very well. Last year, (her first year on the Mainland), she had been captured by Lizzy, but had befriended her and tried to get her father to believe that fairies _were_ real. In doing so, one of Tinkerbell's friends, Vidia, had been captured by Martin and he had taken her to London. It was only by the speed of the fairies and Lizzy that saved Vidia from probably being cut up and ending the secret of the fairies' existence.

Tinkerbell watched as the car came to a halt outside the cottage and Martin and Lizzy got out.

"Oh, I'm so glad to be back, father!" Lizzy exclaimed as she ran over to the gate and opened it. "I find it absolutely lovely!"

Martin chuckled. "Yes, Lizzy," he replied.

He opened the trunk of the car and took out a small suitcase, but almost dropped it as he pulled it out of the trunk.

"Ofph!" he grunted. "Your mother has really packed this heavily," he said.

Lizzy was smiling up at the cottage, her happiness of coming back here for the summer, sweeping through her like water on rock. However, when she heard her father mention her mother, she felt the happiness come to a halt within her and then fade out. Her gaze saddened a little and she looked down at the ground.

"Don't forget your fairy house, darling," Martin said to her. She did not reply, which he quickly noticed. "Are you alright, Lizzy?" he asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

Quickly Lizzy snapped back into reality. "Oh, yes! I'm okay, father,"

Martin was not so convinced. Being a father, he probably knew when Lizzy was upset very well.

"Now c'mon, Lizzy," he said, setting the suitcases down on the ground and walking over to her and kneeling down on one knee next to her. "Tell me, what's wrong?" he asked her.

Lizzy sighed. "It's…well, It's…" she began, but kept pausing, finding it difficult whether she should tell him about why she was a little sad. "It's mother, father," she said finally.

"Oh," Martin replied, his voice dropping a little. After a moment, he sighed and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Look, Lizzy, I know how you feel about me and your mother no longer being together, but…we still talk to each other. It's not like we hate each other or anything like that,"

"I know, father, but…I thought you and mother would try and be together again,"

"We will, Lizzy, don't worry," he smiled at Lizzy to try and cheer her up. She responded with a small smile, not a very big smile but good enough. "There we go," Martin embraced his daughter and she hugged him. "I just think your mother and I still need a bit more time from each other before we try and start again, Lizzy,"

Lizzy nodded a little. She did accept her father's, and probably her mother's, reason as well for not being together, but she still wished they could just finally make up and they could all be together again.

This had all started a few years ago when Lizzy was about seven. Her father had grown very interested into the research of British wildlife and very quickly he became induced in it. So much so, his wife, Rebecca, became worried about him and the fact that he was spending a lot of time studying wildlife rather than being with his family. Eventually, she decided that it was best they were no longer together until he had changed. He had bought a house out here in the country away from their home in London and they had agreed to let Lizzy visit him in the summer.

"Don't worry, Lizzy, I promise you, we'll be back together soon," martin reassured her again.

Lizzy smiled a little more now. "I hope so, father,"

"That's the spirit," he said as he released her and stood up. "Right, let's get your things inside. And don't forget your fairy house. You never know who might turn up to stay with us,"

Lizzy smiled and ran over to the back of the car and picked up a small round box whilst her father picked up the two suitcases and carried them through the front garden towards the door. Lizzy ran ahead of him and pushed it open and let her father go in first. Just as she was about to step into the house, Lizzy looked over at a large tree about a hundred metres away. She smiled, thinking that somewhere in or around that tree, her old friend was looking back at her.

"I hope you come here again, Tinkerbell," she muttered to herself before walking inside.

At the tree, Tinkerbell smiled. Oh, she felt the urge to fly over to the house and meet them again. But before she could fly off…

"Hey, Tinkerbell," someone called from below and she looked down to see Silvermist, Iridessa, Fawn, Rosetta and another fairy flying up to her. The last fairy had black hair wrapped in a kind of ponytail with a violet coloured band, light blue eyes and was wearing a sleeveless violet coloured vest with a pair of violet coloured trousers and slip on shoes that were the same colour. She was a fast flying talent fairy and had been a rival of Tinkerbell in the past, but last year when Tinkerbell came to the Mainland for the first time, she saved Tinkerbell from being captured by Martin, but had gotten herself captured in the process and had only just narrowly been saved by Tinkerbell and the others, including Lizzy. She and Tinkerbell were much better friends now and Vidia was not as self-centred as she used to be.

"What are you doing up here?" Silvermist asked her.

"Lizzy and her father have just arrived," she replied. "I'm gonna go see them,"

"Hold on there, sugarcane," Rosetta said all of a sudden, flying in front of Tinkerbell. "You're not going over there-"

"Oh, c'mon, guys!" Tinkerbell pleaded, interrupting Rosetta mid-sentence. "I thought you all liked her and her father and I thought you'd come and see her with me,"

"We know that, Tinkerbell," Rosetta said to her. "I was just going to say you're not going over there without us,"

Tinkerbell smiled. "Oh," she said, blushing a little with embarrassment. "Well then let's get going!" and she flew off towards the cottage, the others following close behind.

However, when they were about half-way to the house, Vidia suddenly dived down away from the group and into the fields. Tinkerbell quickly noticed this and stopped in mid-air, only just managing to avoid the others from flying into her.

"Whoa! You okay, Tinkerbell?" Fawn asked.

"Yeah, but where's Vidia going?" she asked, pointing down at her. Vidia was flying over the fields, bringing a breeze behind her that made the grass sway.

"Why's she down there? I thought she'd come with us," Iridessa asked.

"So did I," Tinkerbell replied. "You guys go on. I'll go talk to her,"

"You sure?" Fawn asked and Tinkerbell nodded. "Okay, see ya in minute," and the rest of the group flew off towards the cottage. Tinkerbell flew down to the grass after Vidia, who had come to a halt after creating a breeze in another part of the field.

"Hey, Vidia," Tinkerbell called and Vidia turned to face her.

"Hey, Tink," she replied. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Tinkerbell replied in a bit of an uneasy tone as she came to a halt in front of Vidia. "We were going to see Lizzy and her father. Aren't you coming?"

"Oh, uh," was Vidia's reply. A slightly worried expression came upon her face and her eyes quickly darted towards the cottage and then back at Tinkerbell, who quickly noticed this but said nothing. "I…I have to…finish making a breeze in the fields. Yes, I have to that first Tinkerbell. Maybe later I might join you,"

"Um, okay," Tinkerbell replied, again in an uneasy voice. "I'll…uh, see ya later then,"

"Yeah, see ya, Tinkerbell," Vidia said and flew off across the field.

Tinkerbell watched her go, a mixed feeling of worry and shock filling her like water filling up a tank. Why did she not want to go and see them? She was good friends them. Maybe she was busy, but the way her eyes had darted to the house and then back to Tinkerbell and that quick worried expression on her face made Tinkerbell think otherwise, but she decided to put it to the back of her mind and flew off towards the cottage. As she approached it, she saw that Lizzy bedroom window was open and she flew towards it. When she reached the window, she saw Lizzy showing the others her small dolls house.

"This is the bath," she was saying and the others flew up to the makeshift room in the doll house and gazed it at, obviously amazed by this thing they had never seen before.

Lizzy, who was kneeling down by the front of the open dolls house, heard a jingling and she, along with the other fairies, looked up at the window to see Tinkerbell hovering towards them. Upon seeing her, Lizzy smiled.

"Tinkerbell!" she exclaimed and Tinkerbell flew over to her hugged her cheek, which Lizzy replied by placing a hand over her in a type of hug as well. "I'm so glad to see you again," she said.

"Same here, Lizzy," Tinkerbell replied, even though it was a jingle to Lizzy but she got the feeling of what she was saying.

"I was showing your friends the doll's house you were in last year," Lizzy said, placing Tinkerbell in the room where her friends were gathered around the bath.

"Didn't you say you sat in this, Tinkerbell?" Iridessa asked.

Tinkerbell nodded. "That's right, and It's really comfy. Try it,"

Iridessa climbed into the bath and laid down in it, the others watching intently. As soon as she did, she felt a relaxing feeling as her body rested against the bottom of the bath. She sighed relaxingly.

"Oh, this is great," she sighed. "I can't believe we didn't try this last year,"

The others chuckled and Iridessa got out of the bath and Rosetta laid down in it. She was also entranced by the relaxing feeling inside it.

"Well, I take it you'll want to know how to build one of these," Lizzy said, laughing a little and Tinkerbell nodded.

For most of the morning, Lizzy and Tinkerbell showed her friends around Lizzy's room and the cottage, amazing them with her toys, her fairy house and, which Tinkerbell jumped at the chance, the car outside. They had to leave by the early afternoon, but it was the best first day they had had of summer so far and this was only the first day. They would be visiting Lizzy more often. 


	2. A mysterious article

**The next day**

Another bright and sunny day had dawned for the Mainland. A gentle breeze was blowing through the air and all around the Mainland; fairies were at work bringing the summer season to the Mainland. Some animal fairies were painting butterflies in the home tree; other garden fairies were helping the flowers in the fields and garden bloom. A few light fairies were around the garden of the cottage, bringing light to the flowers and plants to make them grow.

In Lizzy's room, Lizzy was showing Tinkerbell something of her fathers she had borrowed from his study.

"We're here, Tinkerbell," she explained.

What Lizzy was showing Tinkerbell was a globe of the Earth. She was pointing to a small island at the top of the sea called the Atlantic, a name which Tinkerbell had never heard of before. The island was called Great Britain, which Lizzy explained was made up of four countries which were England, where they were now, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Tinkerbell was amazed at this. Never before had she, or probably even any other fairy, knew that there were other main lands, or countries as Lizzy called them, across the Earth. They had always thought that Great Britain was one big country that covered much of the world. It was amazing to know that where they were was only a tiny spot of the landmass on the Earth.

"Wow!" Tinkerbell said, resting a hand on bottom of the south Atlantic area of the globe. Gently she spun it with her hand and the world turned slightly, coming to a halt with South America facing Tinkerbell. "I never knew there were other places in the world," she muttered to herself.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Lizzy said to Tinkerbell, as if she knew what she was saying, who replied with a nod and looked back at the globe, gazing at the countries that made up the continent of South America, which were recognizable as they were mapped out with colours and had their names written on them. One big country in South America called Brazil was green and covered a lot of the landmass.

Tinkerbell hovered gently up the globe and came to a halt above another large landmass. There was one big country that caught her eye. It was a dark orange colour and seemed to dominate much of the northern landmass

"What's this one called?" Tinkerbell asked, pointing at the country.

"That one's called America, or the United States as my father keeps correcting me," Lizzy said. "It's a really big country, isn't it?"

Tinkerbell nodded. Wow! She was learning a lot about the Earth already. This made her look up at Great Britain and a new question popped into her head.

"Uh, Lizzy?" she asked, hovering up to Great Britain. She pointed at Great Britain and waved her hands around in front of her face, then pointed at her and Lizzy and then at Great Britain on the globe. At first, Lizzy was confused at what Tinkerbell was trying to say, but after a few tries she managed to work out Tinkerbell was saying _"Where are we in Great Britain?" _

"Oh, hang on a moment, Tinkerbell," she replied and she walked over to her bookcase and began rifling through her books. As she did, Tinkerbell looked at the globe again. She lightly turned it with her hand and the globe spun round slightly. She pushed it again, this time with both hands and it spun round a bit more. She chuckled a little; enjoying her little game. She pushed it again and again, this time continuously. Within a few seconds, the globe was spinning around quickly. Then, Tinkerbell slammed her finger down onto the globe and it came to a halt, her finger pointing down on Great Britain.

"Ah, here we are!" Lizzy said from her bookcase and she came back over holding a book that was titled: _Map of Great Britain and Ireland_. She set the book down the table and turned some of the pages until she finally came to a map of England. "Here we go, Tinkerbell," Lizzy said and her fairy friend hovered over and set down next to the book. It was dotted with small grey patches and greenery, which she recognized as forests, and tiny rivers and mountains, each grey patch, forest and river had a name below, above or next to it. "We're here," Lizzy said, pointing onto a small green area not far to the north of a large grey patch on the page called _London_. "Very close to London," she added.

Tinkerbell looked at where Lizzy was pointing and then at London. She remembered that city name well. Last year, that was where Lizzy's father had taken Vidia and had almost gotten to the science laboratory or whatever it was he called it. Tinkerbell and her friends had sprayed pixie dust over Lizzy, enabling her to fly, and she had flown them to London after her father and Tinkerbell had managed to stop the car Martin was travelling in. She had changed from trying to be devoted to his work from then on and spent more time with his daughter from then on.

It was then Tinkerbell noticed something on Lizzy. On her other hand was a small gold bracelet. It was small and made up of tiny little wands and small stars, which showed her fascination with fairies and what they did.

Lizzy heard Tinkerbell jingle and she looked down at her hand to see her lift up the bracelet with her tiny hand, a smile on her face.

"Lovely, isn't it," Lizzy said and Tinkerbell nodded. "My mother gave it to me last year when it was my ninth birthday. I loved it. It's probably the best gift I have in my fascination with fairies,"

"Wow," Tinkerbell said, admiring the bracelet with her blue eyes. It was really beautiful. She had never seen anything like this before.

A sudden loud bang/backfiring sound from outside startled the two. "Father's back," Lizzy said and she walked over to the window, Tinkerbell flying alongside her.

They rested on the windowsill and looked down the dirt road that ran past the house to see a car pull up outside the front garden gate. Her father was sitting in the seat, a newspaper on the seat next to him. He climbed out of the car and picked up the newspaper.

"Morning, father," Lizzy shouted down to him, waving to him.

"Ah, morning, Lizzy," he replied, waving back up at her. "Morning, Tinkerbell," he added and she waved back down at him.

He walked up to the house, saying hello to a group of light fairies bringing light to a pot of flowers near the gate, and entered the house.

"Time for a cup of tea," he said to himself, switching on the kettle.

When the kettle was boiled, he poured himself a cup of tea and added a bit of milk and three sugars and walked up to his study. He heard Lizzy talking to Tinkerbell and he chuckled quietly to himself and opened his study door and stepped inside. He sat down at his desk, quickly staring up at the now bare wall behind him. Most of the display cases he had he got rid of on Lizzy's request when she told him that the fairies did not like seeing them as it made them nervous. Those that he had, he kept out of sight of the fairies, mostly in his drawers in his study.

"Right, let's have a look and see what's going on in the world," he said as he opened the paper and taking a sip of his tea.

For a few minutes, he flicked through the paper, looking at the headlines that were presented. There was not really much going about at the moment. Just mainly sport, a car accident in London and about a new village fete taking place somewhere up north.

It was then, as he flicked back onto page four, he noticed a headline at the top of the page. It was titled _'Green Lights'_.

"Green lights?" Martin muttered to himself as he read the headline but before he could read what it was about…

A knock at the door made him jump and he spilled a bit of tea onto the desk. He wiped it up with a tissue from a box on the desk and looked over at the door.

"Come in," he said.

The door opened and Lizzy stepped in. "Hello, father," she said. "One of the field mice that works with Tinkerbell's friends has arrived with them and they're asking if you could give him a few sugar cubes,"

"Oh, yes, Lizzy," he said, getting up. "I'll get them," and he walked out of the study after his daughter to the kitchen, leaving the mysterious article behind.


	3. An arguement

**Later that night**

Another perfect summer day was beginning to draw to a close. The sun was starting to set behind the distant hills, filling the sky with a beautiful array of colours of gold, purple and red. The many birds and squirrels and other animals were heading home to settle for the night and the fairies were mostly doing the same. In the sky to the east, it was already starting to turn dark and the moon was just visible in the approaching night sky.

In the air above the fields, Iridessa and the other light fairies were collecting the last light of day from the sun as it set. Fawn was doing some last minute teaching to a group of frogs sitting in the grass and Rosetta and other garden fairies were just making some flowers near the home tree bloom to catch a bit of light before the night came in.

At the cottage, Lizzy opened her bedroom windows and a small fairy next to her hopped into the air.

"Bye, Tinkerbell," Lizzy said, waving her friend goodbye.

"Bye, Lizzy," Tinkerbell replied, though it was jingling to Lizzy but she got the feeling that Tinkerbell was saying goodbye, and she flew off towards the home tree.

When she touched down in the home tree, she walked through the entrance. Most of the fairies had gone to the dormitories set for boys and girls. A few were still walking about or working but they would soon be settling down for the night.

As Tinkerbell walked towards one of the girl dormitories to her left, a squeak behind her caught her attention and she turned to see a field mouse walk up to her.

"Hiya, Cheese!" Tinkerbell exclaimed, walking up to him and rubbing his head. "Did you enjoy those sugar cubes we gave you earlier on?"

He squeaked and nodded in reply, meaning yes. "Oh, that's good," Tinkerbell said.

"Cheese?" a voice said from outside and the two looked towards the entrance to see Bobble and Clank. "Ah, there he is!" Bobble said. "Hello, Tinkerbell,"

"Hey guys," Tinkerbell replied. "He wondered in here,"

"Well, It's time for you to go to bed now, Cheese," Clank said to him and the field mouse gave a final squeak at Tinkerbell as if to say goodnight and followed Clank and Bobble outside.

"See ya, Cheese. See ya guys," Tinkerbell said as they left.

"Bye, Tinkerbell," Bobble and Clank replied in unison.

More voices came from outside and she heard Clank and Bobble talk again. Then, the entrance leaves to the tree moved again and Silvermist, Fawn, Iridessa and Rosetta came in, chatting happily.

"Hey girls," Tinkerbell greeted.

"Hey, Tinkerbell," they chirruped.

"How was your day with Lizzy?" Silvermist asked.

"Oh, it was amazing!" Tinkerbell replied. "I've got so much to tell you guys, I-I don't know where to begin!"

"Well let's go to the dormitory and you can tell us then," Iridessa said.

The group began to walk towards a small hole in the side of the tree where a large green leaf was blocking the way into the room on the other side when Tinkerbell suddenly stopped.

"Hey guys, where's Vidia?" she asked.

"I think she's still outside," Fawn replied. "I saw her a few minutes ago out there,"

"Has she been alright lately?" Tinkerbell asked them, a hint of concern in her voice. "I mean, she was worried yesterday when I asked her if she wanted to come to see Lizzy with us and she said she would come over with us when we took Cheese over there,"

"Yeah, she's been acting a little whenever we ask her if she wants to see Lizzy and her father," Iridessa said.

"Wonder what's wrong with her?" Rosetta asked.

"Well, I'm gonna go talk to her," Tinkerbell said. "I'll meet you guys back in there in a minute," and she flew off towards the home tree entrance.

"Okay, see you in a minute, Tinkerbell," she heard her friends say.

She pushed the leaf doors out of the way and found herself outside. The dark night sky was much closer now as if it were taking over the sky. The moon was following it as both advanced westwards. The sun had finally set and the last of the fairies outside were heading back to the tree. Tinkerbell flew up a little higher into the air and scanned the surrounding fields and sky for Vidia. A few fairies greeted her as they passed but she was too occupied with looking for her friend.

Then, her eyes rested on a shape moving above the grass below. It was a violet colour and seemed to be creating a light breeze as it went. That was Vidia alright. Tinkerbell flew down after her fiend, who was starting to slow to a halt above the ground.

"Hey, Vidia!" Tinkerbell called and her friend came to a halt and turned to face her.

"Oh, hey, Tink," she replied as Tinkerbell came to a halt in front of her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, um…Vidia, can I talk to you?" she asked.

"Um…well, okay," Vidia said. "What's wrong?"

"Well nothing's wrong, but…well…It's…with you and…the way you've been acting lately," Tinkerbell said nervously.

"What d'you mean?" Vidia asked.

"Well…It's with you and…um…and Lizzy and her father," Tinkerbell answered.

"Oh," Vidia's eyes went a little wide at this point as if she was worried that Tinkerbell had found it out. "W-w-what about me and them?"

"Well, when I asked you if you wanted to come with us and visit them yesterday, you had a worried expression on your face and you then said that you were busy. And then today, you said you would come and join us when we took Cheese over to their house and you didn't turn up,"

"Y-yeah," Vidia said lowly. "I was busy yesterday _and_ today," she said defensively.

"Yeah, but you sounded worried yesterday when you couldn't come with us and today we were expecting you to come with us and yet you didn't turn up," Tinkerbell pointed out. "Now c'mon, Vidia, what's wrong? You can tell me,"

"Nothing's wrong, Tinkerbell," Vidia protested but Tinkerbell gave her a look that told her otherwise. She sighed. "Alright, if you want to know the truth…I don't feel comfortable seeing them," she said.

"What!" Tinkerbell said, shocked. "Oh, come on, Vidia. This-this is about last year, isn't it!"

"Well…yeah, Tinkerbell," Vidia replied. "I mean, I'm not the sort of person who can forget something like that,"

"But, Vidia. Lizzy didn't mean to capture me and her father did apologize to you. And you were okay around them last year,"

"That's because I didn't want to upset you guys or them! You did save me and I thought even though I had probably come really close to being cut up and put in a display case like all those butterflies and such he had in his study, I wanted to put it aside for then,"

"Oh come on, Vidia!" Tinkerbell's voice began to rise a little now. "You're being ignorant and unreasonable! Why can't you just forgive and forget? They did make it up to us!"

"Well you'll have to love with the fact that I can't do anything like that, Tinkerbell!" Vidia's voice also began to rise and, like Tinkerbell at the moment, her face was also staring to go red with anger. "To be honest, I think you're getting to trustworthy of Humans! Maybe you can trust those two, but what if they try and introduce any others to you? What then? What if they take you away and try and pin you up in a display case like they did to me?"

"Well, you're being too accusative!" Tinkerbell half-shouted at her. "You just can't trust anyone who proves their better then you or tries to hurt you but says their sorry! They're both good people and good friends!"

By this point, Vidia, who had felt anger rising through her and threatening to explode like a volcanic eruption, had had enough.

"Then stay here and live with them!" she shouted at Tinkerbell. "If you think they're such good people and such good friends, then stay here and be a part of them!" and with that, she flew off past Tinkerbell towards the home tree. Tinkerbell watched her go, her face a mixture of shock and anger, but she did not try and fly after her and try and say something back. That would only make things worse.

Around her, the last light from behind the hills had faded and now high above her, the stars were coming out. The second star on the right that led to Neverland shined brightly in the night sky.

Finally, after a few moments of remaining where she was, Tinkerbell sighed and flew back to the home tree. When she reached the entrance, she flew down through the leaf doors and over to the dormitory where her friends were staying. She pushed through the leaf doors into the room. The dormitory was a circular room with six small beds along the wall opposite the door. A small fire lamp hung from the ceiling. Vidia was in the bed at the left end of the dormitory and was on her side with her back facing the others, who were gathered around the two middle beds which were Fawn's and Silvermist's.

"Hey, Tinkerbell," Fawn said when she saw her enter, but she, along with the others, quickly noticed the slightly sad expression on her face. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm alright," Tinkerbell replied.

"Well, come over here," Silvermist said, moving up the bed a little to give her room. "Come tell us about what you and Lizzy did today,"

"Oh, uh…on second thoughts, I'm pretty tired," Tinkerbell said, her eyes looking over at Vidia and their recent argument played itself over and over in her mind. "I'm gonna get some sleep,"

"Oh, well…alright then," Silvermist said. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Tinkerbell insisted and she walked over to her bed. The others gave each other uncertain looks as she sat down on her bed. She looked once more at Vidia as if hoping she would turn over and look back at her, but she just laid there in her bed, still as a statue. Tinkerbell sighed and got under the covers of her bed and rested her head against the pillow, looking over at Vidia for a moment before heaving another sigh and turning over on her side so she was facing the wall.

What Vidia had said to her had shocked her a bit, but she was trying to get her to see the point that all of what had happened last year, Martin and Lizzy were sorry for. She just wanted to show Vidia that they were good people and they were sorry for what had happened.

Finally, Tinkerbell closed her eyes and let herself fall into a deep sleep.

"D'you think she's okay?" Iridessa asked the others.

"I hope so," Rosetta replied. "D'you think her and Vidia…have had an argument?"

"I hope not," Fawn replied. "But they might have, I mean; she didn't say hello or anything to us when she came into the dormitory,"

They all nodded. "I hope they'll feel better in the morning," Silvermist said hopefully.


	4. Off to the fields

**The next day**

Vidia had left the home tree early before Tinkerbell or the others had even woken up this morning. It was obvious she was still annoyed from the argument that had happened last night. Tinkerbell had wanted to talk to her, but she clearly did not want to speak to her. Tinkerbell would have to give her time to cool down, but whether that would be for a few days or the whole summer was the real question.

Today was another sunny day for Great Britain, though Silvermist had said the air had smelt grouchy earlier this morning and said that a storm might be on It's way so the fairies outside were keeping an eye on the weather. At the moment, Tinkerbell and her friends were in the cottage kitchen with Lizzy, who was showing her, Bobble, Clank, Silvermist and Iridessa a little fairy bank of her whilst Rosetta and Fawn were playing with her cat Mr Twitches by holding a ball on a bit of string over the edge of the table and pulling it up when he tried to hit it.

"So you open it up at the bottom like this," Lizzy said, turning the lid on the bottom of her fairy bank and taking it off. "And the coins fall out," she added, holding out her hand and a few silver coins fell out into her hand. "And to put it back in, you put them through this tiny little slot in the top of her head," she finished, leaning the head of the fairy towards them.

"Wow!" Tinkerbell said. "That's pretty cool,"

"Very interesting," Bobble added.

"C'mon Mr Twitches. You can do it, honey," Rosetta said as she and Fawn raised the ball on the end of the string a little higher above the cat, narrowly getting it out of his reach as he swiped his paw at it.

"Ooooh, almost!" Fawn commented, sounding like a commentator at a race. "Let's try again," and she and Rosetta lowered the ball towards the cat, who looked up at it and made itself ready to pounce and swipe at it again.

"Do any of you want to have a go?" Lizzy offered, holding the fairy bank near them.

Tinkerbell stood up and said something, though it was a jingle but Lizzy knew what she meant and she placed the fairy bank on the table and watched, along with the others, as she struggled to twist the lid off the fairy bank. After a few moments, she finally got it off and took out one of the coins. Lizzy, Bobble and Clank applauded her.

"Well done, Tinkerbell," Iridessa said.

"Nice one, Tink," Silvermist.

"Thanks, guys," she said.

"Lizzy?" a voice said from the doorway and everyone in the room looked towards the door that led out into the corridor to see Martin walk into the room, holding a cup of tea in his hand.

"Hello, father," Lizzy said and the other fairies waved at him.

"Hello," he chuckled. "Are they having fun?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm just showing them my fairy bank and they've really liked it," Lizzy replied.

"Oh good," Martin smiled and yawned a little. "Oh, sorry," he said. "A bit tired,"

"Didn't you get enough sleep last night father?" Lizzy asked him.

"I did actually, but I had the most peculiar dream," he replied. "I dreamt that we were back in London again, though this time there were many people with us and then I suddenly woke up," he chuckled a little. "It was a strange dream, but I won't let it worry me," he looked down at the cat and watched him take another swipe at the ball, which it missed again, and laughed. "Having fun there you two?" he asked Rosetta and Fawn who nodded.

Then, a backfiring sound from outside came in through the open window and everyone in the room looked towards the window, Rosetta and Fawn dropping the string when Mr Twitches swing a paw at the ball and hit it. Another backfiring sound filled the air, though this time it sounded closer and another followed quickly afterwards. By the wounds of it, there were two cars heading down this way. That was not unusual, but it was quite early in the morning so what were two cars doing driving along here at this time of day?

"Wonder what's going on?" Martin asked and he walked over to the door and opened it and stepped out into the garden. The few light, garden and animal fairies that were around his garden had hidden behind anything they could use for cover to hide from the Humans approaching. Martin looked down the dirt path and saw two cars drive up it.

"What is it making the noise, father?" Lizzy asked as she and the fairies entered the garden.

"Those two cars," Martin replied and they watched as the two cars drove past, both filled with about four people in each. Those in the cars were engaged in conversation and did not even look up at Martin or his daughter as they drove past and within a few minutes, they had driven off into the distance.

Then, another backfiring sound filled the air and another car drove past, this one also carrying about four people. This one also drove past with It's occupants in deep conversation and too busy talking to even look up at the cottage and the people in front of it as they passed. Then, a man dressed with short black hair, brown eyes and dressed in a kind of grey coloured suit with a black tie and black shoes and had a small flat hat on his head began walking up the dirt pathway. His name was Tom Roberts. He owned a small blacksmith in the village not far from the cottage. Martin and his daughter knew him well as a friend.

"What on Earth is going on?" Martin asked.

Tinkerbell and her friends were thinking the same thing. What was going on? Why were so many cars driving past at this time in the morning and why was this man walking past?

"Uh, Lizzy, It's best if you take the fairies back inside in case they startle Roberts," Martin said to her and she nodded and led the fairies back inside.

"Uh, Roberts?" Martin called and walked up the pathway to the gate as Tom was walking past. He turned his head to look at Martin.

"Oh, 'ello, Martin," he greeted. "How are ya?"

"I'm alright, Roberts," he replied. "Um, Roberts, why are so many cars going this way and why are you following them?"

"Didn't you 'ear?" he asked.

Martin shook his head. "Heard about what?" he asked Roberts.

"Something's goin' on the fields a couple a miles up the road," he answered. "Loads of people are flockin' to it,"

"Oh," Martin looked up the road. "No, I didn't know that," he said.

"Well, c'mon, let's walk there an' see what's goin' on,"

"Yes, uh, wait there a moment, Roberts," Martin said. "I'll be with you in a moment,"

"Alrigh' then,"

Martin turned and rushed back to the house, pushing the door open and closing it behind him. Lizzy was standing by the fairies, who were standing on the table.

"Is everything okay, father?" Lizzy asked him.

"Yes, Lizzy," he replied, walking over to the sink and pouring what was left of his tea down the drain and setting the cup down on the side. "Me and Mr Roberts are heading out somewhere. Something's apparently going on,"

"Should I and the fairies come with you, father?" Lizzy asked.

"I'd rather not," Martin replied. "It could get a bit crowded and you might get lost, darling. And the same for your fairies as well,"

"Oh, yes, right," Lizzy agreed.

"I'll call Mrs Perkins to come and look after you while I'm gone," he said and he walked off to his study to fetch his coat and car keys and phone Mrs Perkins.

Whilst he was gone, Lizzy looked at her fairy friends. "I wonder what's going on," she said.

They nodded. "Yeah, I wonder what is going on," Tinkerbell said.

"D'you think it could be something bad?" Clank asked.

"Nah, can't be, Clank," Bobble replied. "If it were, then these Humans who I've heard are called soldiers would have told us to leave and we would've known by now,"

The others nodded. "Yeah, suppose your right," Clank replied.

A few minutes later, Martin re-emerged from the corridor into the kitchen, this time wearing his coat in case it was cold and holding his car key in his hand.

"Right, I'm off, Lizzy," he said. "Mrs Perkins'll be here in a minute. Be good,"

"Okay, father, stay safe," she replied, waving at him as he left.

"Don't worry, I'll be alright. Okay, bye," he told her and with that, he closed the door and walked up to the gate where Roberts was waiting for him. "Right, I'll drive us there, Roberts," he said.

"Righ' ya are, Martin," he replied and the two walked over to Martin's car, which was parked on the grass on the left end of the house. They climbed in and Martin started the engine, which spluttered and backfired a few times before he drove it forward onto the dirt path and turned it left and drove down the path, another car not too far ahead of them.


	5. The first attack

**Fifteen minutes later**

Martin and Roberts had driven quite far from the cottage before they reached the filed, about ten or so miles to be exact. When they finally arrived at the field, which was just about a mile or so from the nearest village, they saw that a large crowd had gathered from the village, as well a few more people from the cars that Martin had seen pass his house.

Martin drove his car into a small field near a bunch of trees where a few other cars, most likely the ones he had seen pass them earlier on, were parked. When he had parked the vehicle, he and Roberts got out and Martin took out the car key and put it in his pocket.

"Righ', let's go an' 'ave a look," Roberts said and he walked off towards the crowd of people a few metres down the road; Martin followed.

As they approached the crowd, Martin looked at the trees near him and saw that a large number of birds had gathered on the braches to look at what had crashed. A few squirrels were climbing the branches just below the tops of the trees and were also heading towards the crowd. Wow! Everyone, including the animals, was curious about what was going on, but what exactly was going?

Finally, they reached the crowd. Everyone in it was talking to one another and looking ahead of them as if they were looking at something. What was it?

"Whaddya thinks goin' on?" Roberts asked.

"I don't know," Martin replied. "Uh, excuse me?" he tapped a man standing in front of him, who was talking to a woman standing next to him, on the shoulder. The man and the woman turned to face him. "Sorry to disturb you, but what exactly is going on?"

"Something crashed in the field," the man replied.

"Crashed in the field?" Martin repeated and the man nodded.

"Yeah, c'mon, I'll show you two," he said and he led Martin and Roberts through the crowd, having to push a few people aside, but they did not seem to care. Martin and Roberts followed close behind quickly to keep up with him.

After about a minute, they reached the edge of the crowd and both Martin and Roberts went wide-eyed.

About a hundred feet ahead of them was a huge rock, about thirty feet high and about forty feet across. It's sides were hissing with steam and it was a dark brown/maroon colour. It must have been powerful when it crashed because it had driven deep into the ground and left a small trench that had been caused from when it had crashed. A huge mound of earth about forty feet high was on the other side of the rock.

"My goodness!" Martin breathed, breathless with shock. This was the strangest thing he had ever seen. "What kind of rock is that?" he asked.

"Apparently It's a meteorite," the man told him.

"A me'eori'e?" Roberts repeated and the man nodded.

"Yeah. Someone in the village reported hearing a massive crash out here in the fields last night and when someone came out of their house this morning, they saw a large cloud coming up from the field and they thought a fire had started and word quickly spread from then on and this crowd is pretty much the result of it," the man concluded.

"Oh," they looked back at the rock and watched it emanate more steam and hissed loudly. A few policemen a few metres down from them were keeping a few people back from trying to climb into the pit. Martin stood transfixed at this thing. Why had a meteorite crashed here?

It was then he noticed something else about the meteorite as well. Well, not exactly the meteorite but the ground around it. It had created a pit rather than a crater and it had skidded across the ground as well. Martin was no expert on meteorites, but he certainly knew that when they crashed, they did not skid across the ground or create pits rather than craters. Something was not right about this.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" someone was shouting from behind and a few people stepped aside, with Martin, Roberts and the man who had led them to the front of the crowd, watching, to reveal a short and quite fat man dressed in black robes. He was holding a Bible in his hands and had a necklace of the cross come to a halt on the edge of the pit. "Oh my," he said upon seeing the meteorite. He gave the sign of the cross on himself. "May the Lord above see this on this day," he said.

"Oi! Keep back there, sir!" a voice barked from further up the side of the pit and Martin and Roberts looked at the direction of the voice to see a policeman shouting at a man who was trying to venture into the pit. One of the policemen grabbed him and pulled him away from the edge.

"Oi, what are ya playing at?" the man growled at him.

"Stoppin' you from 'urting yaself, you berk!" the policeman replied in a stern voice. "Now c'mon, back off from the pit. C'mon, everyone back a little bit!"

"Oh dear," Martin said.

"Oi, look!" a woman suddenly shouted, pointing at the meteorite.

Everyone around her, including Martin, Roberts, the man and the priest, looked at the meteorite and their eyes went wide.

Even though it was a hundred feet away, they could actually see the side of the meteorite facing the crowd moving! It was actually moving! Little pieces of the meteorite were falling off like flakes. By this point, everyone was watching it. Even the policemen who had stopped the man who wanted to get into the pit had gone quiet and wide-eyed.

"What the bloody Hell's it doing?" another nearby man asked.

Before anyone could reply…

VRRRRRUUUUUUMMMMMP! CRASH!

The side of the meteorite had swelled up like a balloon and then collapsed in a shower of dust. Martin and few people covered their noses and eyes as the dust passed through them, coughing slightly but it passed and faded within a few seconds. When they looked back, Martin could not believe what he was seeing.

The meteorite was actually a kind of cave. The rest of it had not collapsed; it just remained how it was. From his point of view on the edge of the pit, Martin could see from the sunlight as it shined down on the meteorite a kind of silver coloured floor inside it.

"What is this thing?" he asked himself.

"I wish I knew that meself," the man next to him said.

"Should we go down there and 'ave a look?" a nearby woman asked.

"No, everyone stay where you are!" a policeman barked. "That thin' could be dangerous!"

"How?" a man barked.

"It could collapse completely!" the policeman barked back.

An argument was beginning to break out among the policemen and a few people in the crowd. Martin watched all this from where he was standing. Thank God he was not over there or he would probably end up being involved in the middle of a punch up.

As he looked back at the now open meteorite, Roberts muttered something.

"Sorry?" Martin asked, having heard him.

"I've jus' had a feelin'," Roberts replied. "Wha' if there's someone in there?" he asked.

Martin did not reply but looked back at the meteorite. Roberts did have a good point. What if someone was in there? Would they come out? Or would they wait for someone to go in and look for them?

"This is very strange," Martin said to himself.

"You got that right," the man next to him said.

Then, someone shouted: "Hey, look! Something's moving from within the meteorite!"

Everyone looked at the meteorite and gasped or went wide-eyed and began to mutter amongst themselves. Something _was _moving! They could just about see it from the sunlight. Something was definitely in there.

Then, it came out.

Everyone gasped at the sight of the creature. Martin muttered "My goodness!" under his breath and Roberts said something that Martin could not hear because of the talking going on behind him.

The thing people had seen was actually a creature. It looked like a dragon. It had a kind of silver coloured skin with two arms and two legs, though it was walking on the arms as well as the legs, four fingers on each hand, two of them being big fingers, and four toes on each foot and sharp claws on each of them. The creature had a kind of thin body as if it had not eaten for a long time. It's eyes were a shiny black colour, it had two small slots in the side of his head to act as ears and it had a small snout with two slits which were It's nostrils on the front of the snout. Scales that looked like silver fire ran down It's back. It had no tail and two thin horns were protruding from the top of It's head. It's mouth was a kind of V shaped and saliva that was coloured a kind of dark green was dripping from it.

"My God, what ugly brutes!" the nearby priest exclaimed.

Martin just stared in shock and awe at this creature. He could not believe what he was seeing. Never in his entire life had he ever seen anything like this kind of creature. As far as he knew, there was no such thing living anywhere in Great Britain, or even anywhere on the planet! What was it?

"Wha' the 'ell is that thin'?" Roberts asked.

"I don't know," Martin replied.

The creature ambled out into the sunlight and growled a little when the beams of light shined down onto him, raising one of It's arms to shield It's eyes. After a moment, it lowered It's arm, probably having gotten used to the intense sunlight, and looked up at the crowd with It's black eyes. Everyone was staring back at it with wide eyes and was muttering to one another and pointing at it.

Martin could help but feel uncomfortable as the creature looked up at the crowd. Although he could not tell, somewhere inside him he had a feeling that this creature was staring up at the crowd with hatred and anger in It's eyes. He could not be sure because it did not have any eyebrows to give it an angry look, but still he just felt uneasy.

The creature growled and hissed at the crowd, bearing It's many sharp teeth inside It's mouth as if it were a predator on the attack. Then, it reared up slightly, drawing a wave of muttering from everyone who could see it, and then dropped back down on It's arms and ambled back into the meteorite, disappearing into the darkness inside it.

A wave of conversation suddenly engulfed the crowd.

"What the Hell was that?"

"Did you see that thing?"

"Oh, how ugly it was!"

"I've never seen anything like that in my life!"

"What do you think it was doing?"

"Why has it gone back into the meteorite?"

All of these questions were ones no one knew the answer to. Martin was asking himself them, but he just could not find an answer. He did not know what these creatures were, where they had come from and, probably most importantly, why they were here. Why were they here?

"'Ey, I've got an idea!" Roberts said all of a sudden. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white handkerchief. "Anyone go' a stick?" he asked. "Oh, never mind," he said, finding one on the ground near him. He picked it up and tied the handkerchief to the end of the stick. A few curious people around him watched him questionably.

"What are you doing, Roberts?" Martin asked.

"They're probably scare'," he replied. "Well, we 'ave to show 'em tha' we won't 'urt 'em,"

Before anyone could stop him, Roberts stepped into the pit and began cautiously climbing down the side. He stopped about ten feet from the edge of the pit and looked up at the crowd, who was mostly now fixed on him.

"Anyone else wanna come?" he asked.

"I will," the man next to Martin piped up and followed Roberts into the pit. Roberts looked over at the priest.

"And Mr pries', you be'er come as well. They migh' be religious folk,"

"Yes, good point," the priest said and he wobbled over to the area of the pit where they were and climbed in after them to the bottom of the pit. The man and the priest walked over to the meteorite, but Roberts stayed where he was and looked up at Martin.

"You comin' Marti'?" Roberts asked.

"Uh," Martin replied, looking at him and then at the meteorite with unease in his voice. "Uh, no thank you, Roberts. I think I'll stay here,"

"Ya sure?" Roberts asked. "They migh' be fond of ya research and stuff!" he told Martin.

"No, I'll stay here," Martin said.

"Ya sure? Last chance?"

"Yes, I'll definitely stay here, Roberts," Martin said.

"Alrigh', suite yaself," Roberts walked off towards the meteorite. Martin watched him go and felt unease rise through him again. Something was not right here, but he just could not figure out what it was he was having a bad feeling about.

Roberts, the man and the priest approached the meteorite, Roberts waving the stick with the handkerchief at it.

"Hello there," he was shouting. "Don' be scare'. C'mon, come out, we won' 'urt ya. Look," he held up the stick. "Friends! We're friends,"

"May the Lord welcome you to our country," the priest said, holding up his Bible to show it to those inside the meteorite.

"C'mon out, we won't hurt you," the man was saying. "We'll show you around our village. You'll like it here,"

Nothing seemed to be working to draw the creature out. Maybe they were scared, or maybe they were planning something in return. Whatever it was, Martin had a feeling that it was not good.

Then, as Roberts, the man and the priest began to step towards the meteorite; they stopped suddenly as they saw something moving within the blackness of the interior of the meteorite. Martin saw it as well, as did more people around him. The sound of mechanical whirring filled the air and the three in front of the meteorite looked at each other, a little concerned.

"What is that noise?" the man asked.

Before either Roberts or the priest could answer, a large shape suddenly rose out of the meteorite and everyone stared in awe at it. The shape was actually a tall mechanical spire that was a shiny chrome colour and was coming out from something within the meteorite that no one could see. The spire was split into three sections. The first section was at a diagonal length and was connected to the second section which was sticking up into the air for about fifteen feet. At the top of the second section of the spire was a large cylindrical-like object that was the third section of the spire. The sides of the cylindrical object was dotted with bright green neon lights and sticking out of the bottom of the cylindrical object was a smaller cylindrical object that was about four feet high and glowing a fiery orangey/red colour.

"What the Devil is that?" the priest asked.

"I don' know," Roberts replied.

Then, the smaller cylinder began to spin. Slowly at first, but then faster and faster until it was almost a blur. Then, the end of the larger cylinder opened up into a kind of silo. The three men in the pit watched intently with the crowd. A charging sound filled the air and the inside of the silo began to glow a fiery orangey/red colour. What was it doing?

Something inside Martin's head was telling him to run. Whatever it was this thing was doing, it did not sound good, at all.

Then, a beam of light, similar to when a lighthouse shines out across the sea, shot out of the silo and covered the three men in it. They shielded their eyes from the light, as did a few people around the edge of the pit despite it being sunny. Then, a beam of the orangey/red colour shot out of the silo towards the three men.

A chorus of screams filled the air as the beam struck the men. A blinding light came out of the pit and blinded the crowd. Then, silence fell over the pit and the light faded. When Martin lowered his arm from his eyes and looked into the pit, a woman from further up screamed and another behind him fainted into the arms of her husband standing next to her. Martin gasped.

On the ground where Roberts, the priest and the man had been standing was a small powdery pile of skeletal remains. Everything else was gone. Their clothes, the items they had, even their very skin and what was inside their body…it was just…gone.

Then, the cylinder pointed up at the crowd and the spire rose up like a bear rearing up for an attack.

"RU-U-U-U-N-N!" a nearby man yelled.

At once, all hell broke loose as everyone scrambled to get away from the pit. Martin ran as fast as he could, though almost tripping up and falling over several times as he ran. Behind him, he heard a charging up sound and he looked over his shoulder to see the cylinder fire another beam of light at a large group of about twenty people that were running towards the forest. The beam of fire followed and the people, along with the grass they were standing on, were incinerated instantly. A small fire erupted at the base of one of the trees and very quickly it began to lick at the bases of the other trees around it. The birds and squirrels and other animals in the trees immediately fled from the scene as they watched the danger unfold in front of them.

As Martin ran, a group of people began to form in front of him as they headed towards the cars. Suddenly, another beam of fire struck them and vaporized them instantly. A cloud of dust was thrown into the air and Martin ran through it. Coughing and spluttering, he fell over onto the ground. As he got up, he heard another charging sound and turned over to see the cylinder aiming past him…directly at one group of people that were at the cars!

_Oh no! _Martin thought in terror.

The beam fired and struck the cars and the people. The people screamed as they were burned to ash in the blink of an eye and the cars seemed to burn away to nothing with them. A small fire erupted out of one of the cars that had been shielded from the beam by the car next to it. More flames erupted across the grass, setting it alight quickly.

Quickly, Martin got to his feet and ran towards his car, which was partially shielded by the trees. Behind him, more screams of both men and women filled the air as the beam fired again, incinerating two policeman and a woman that were trying to hide in a large bush near the side of the road. The bush was instantly vaporized and turned to ash, along with the three people hiding in it.

Finally, after having to jump over the growing amount of fire, Martin reached his car and jumped into the seat. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he grabbed his key but was shaking so much that when he tried to put the key in the ignition, his hand would miss. Finally, he used his other hand to keep his hand with the key still and he thrust the key into the ignition. The engine spluttered and backfired loudly, which Martin feared would draw the attention of the cylinder. Quickly, he reversed the car and drove at full speed down the dirt road away from the pit.

Suddenly, a pillar of fire seemed to explode behind him. The heat burned his back and he looked to see the beam following him up the road. He slammed his foot on the accelerator and drove faster, praying he would get away. The beam got closer and closer, turning the very road to a scorched landscape and creating a blaze on the grass. The heat on Martin's back was growing unbearable.

Finally, the beam stopped and Martin drove on. However, he smelled smoke and he saw a small hole in the side of his shirt from where the heat had vaporized it. His skin underneath was a little red as well, but other than that, he was okay. When he was a few hundred feet from the pit, near the top of a small hill the road went over, he looked back at the pit, his eyes filled with disbelief and horror.

All of the trees that had been around the crowd were on fire, much of the grass was also burning and some parts around the pit were scorched black and smoking. The cylinder, which martin could clearly see even though he was far from the pit, had retreated back now and he watched as it turned left and right as if checking there was nothing near it before it descended back into the pit and disappeared from sight.

"My God!" Martin whispered under his breath.

That was the scariest few moments of his life. Never had anything like tried to kill him, or anyone for that matter. That thing…that cylinder…it was not from Great Britain and he was beginning to think that it, along with that creature he saw,… That they were not of this Earth.

Snapping back into reality, he drove the car onward down the dirt road again back in the direction of the cottage. Far off in the distant sky, black clouds began to roll over. The distant boom of thunder could just be heard.


	6. Hard decisions

**Meanwhile, back at the cottage**

The storm had struck very quickly all of a sudden and was pounding the ground with rain. A bolt of lightning lit up the land for a split second and a rumble of thunder followed, rolling over the fields and meadows. Most animals and people were fleeing inside to escape from the rain. Most of the fairies had done so as well as they could not work in the rain so they would have to wait until the storm passed, but by the looks of it, that would not be for a while.

In the cottage kitchen, Lizzy and her fairy friends were mostly gathered around the table. Mr Twitches was curled up by the fire with Rosetta, Fawn and Cheese sitting against him. Bobble, Clank, Iridessa and Silvermist were working with Lizzy on how to build small individual baths like the one Lizzy had in her doll house and Tinkerbell and Terence, who had returned a few minutes ago from delivering pixie dust to another fairy camp, were sitting on the end of the table, gazing at the lit fireplace. It was not cold. It was actually to dry off Vidia, who was sitting by the fire with a tiny blanket from Lizzy's doll house, staring at it and having her back to the others. She had been caught out in the storm and had been brought in by the others. She had barely spoken to anyone, especially to Tinkerbell, when she had come here. Mrs Perkins was busy doing the washing up.

"Is she alright?" Terence asked Tinkerbell.

"Yeah, she's still angry about the argument we had last night," Tinkerbell replied.

"You two had an argument?"

Tinkerbell nodded. "Yeah, I said to her she was too accusative and unreasonable because she still doesn't trust Lizzy and Martin as much,"

"Oh," Terence looked over at Vidia. "Do you think she'll get over it?"

"Probably not, but she has more chance of doing so than she did before,"

"No, no, Clanky, don't attach it there," Bobble's voice said. "You've got to attach it there,"

"No, the leaf definitely goes onto the stick, Bobble" Clank replied.

"Now c'mon, you two, no need to argue," Iridessa told them.

Tinkerbell and Terence smirked upon hearing this and continued to gaze at the fire, listening to the pitter patter of the rain as it hit the windows outside. Another rumble of thunder echoed outside. It was a very peaceful and beautiful moment. Tinkerbell sighed and rested her head on Terence's shoulder and he smiled.

"Comfy?" he asked.

She nodded. "Very," she replied.

"Are you all of okay back there?" Mrs Perkins asked.

"We're fine thank you, Mrs Perkins," Lizzy replied.

"Oh good,"

Mrs Perkins was a plump middle aged woman in her fifties with grey hair that was tied back in a bun. She was wearing a grey top with a dark cream dress and brown slip on shoes.

Then, a backfiring sound echoed from outside. Upon hearing this, everyone turned towards the door.

"You father's home," Mrs Perkins said.

Vidia, who had looked over towards the door as well, gulped a little and a worried look came onto her face. Tinkerbell looked at her and saw the look on her face. Vidia noticed Tinkerbell looking at her and quickly turned her head back to gaze at the fire. Tinkerbell sighed quietly.

_She's never gonna get over it _she mentally said to herself.

A few moments later, the door opened and everyone turned to look at the door and their faces went from smiles and happiness to confusion and a bit of worry.

Martin, who had his coat on, stepped into the kitchen and closed the door behind him. He was a right mess. His top was torn, his tie was ripped, his hair was messy, his eyes were wide as if in shock and he was covered in dust. Without saying a word to anyone he walked over to the sink, Mrs Perkins stepping aside and gazing at him with wide eyes, took a cup she had just dried and filled it with cold water from the tap and drank the glass.

"M-M-Martin? Are you okay?" Mrs Perkins asked.

He did not answer and walked over to the table and took a seat and sat down, staring ahead as if in a trance.

"Father, what's wrong?" Lizzy asked, but, again, he did not answer.

All of the fairies stared at him, some confused, others worried.

"What's wrong with him?" Silvermist asked.

Iridessa, Bobble and Clank shrugged. Tinkerbell flew up to him and halted in front of his eyes and waved. He looked at her but said nothing, which worried Tinkerbell and she moved away a little bit.  
>Lizzy was also confused. What was wrong with her father? Why was he not telling them what was wrong, as something obviously was? Was he sick? Or had something happened?<p>

It was then Lizzy noticed something.

"Father?" she asked. "Why do you have dust on you?" she asked.

He turned to look at her. "W-what dust?" he asked.

Tinkerbell hovered back over to him and blew off a bit of the dust from his cheek. He gasped a little in surprise and she held up a piece of the dust to him. The other fairies, Vidia included but she kept a distance from Martin, came over to look as well, as did Mrs Perkins and Lizzy.

Martin got up from his chair and over to the corridor and walked across to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror placed on the wall above the sink and saw that his face was ghostly white-like colour. It looked like flour had been thrown into his face. He brushed a bit of the dust off his face and looked down at it. His eyes went wide and he looked back into the mirror when he realised what it was.

This dust… It-it…it was…the remains of…those people who were vaporized in front of him!

He began to brush the dust off him frantically and ran the tap, splashing water onto his face to get it off. He brushed a bit of the dust on his shoulders and what was left from his hair, which was partly soaked from the rain.

The others listened to him brushing off the dust from the kitchen.

"Wonder what's going on," Tinkerbell said to Terence.

"Beats me," he replied.

"I hope he's okay," Fawn said.

"D'you think it could be with when he left earlier on?" Rosetta asked. "D'you think something happened that put him in this state of shock?"

"Maybe, but what could happen that put him like that?" Bobble asked.

Before anyone could reply, Martin stepped back into the kitchen. For a moment, he looked at the others. Then he cleared his throat.

"Okay, um…Lizzy, can you please go up to your room and pack your things," he said.

"Why father?" Lizzy asked, concerned.

"Lizzy, please!" her father replied in a bit of a desperate voice. "Please, can you just do it? And can all you fairies go up to her room with her? Mrs Perkins can you go to my study please?"

Nobody protested or argued. Lizzy walked into the corridor and up the stairs to her room, the fairies following close behind. Mrs Perkins walked down the corridor to Martin's study he followed her, closing the door behind him.

As Lizzy entered her room, she looked questionably at the others.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

Her fairy friends shrugged.

"I've never seen him like that before," Lizzy said.

"Yeah, I wonder what's wrong with him," Tinkerbell said.

"He was scared of something, but maybe something happened whilst he was out," Silvermist suggested.

"Like what?" Vidia asked her.

"Uh…" Silvermist quickly trailed off. Vidia did have a point. What could have scared him like that? "I don't know,"

Lizzy walked over to her bed and pulled her empty suitcase out from underneath it and opened it. As she walked over to her drawers and began emptying them of her clothes, she sighed.

"I didn't think I would be leaving this early," she said. From downstairs, she heard Martin and Mrs Perkins talking from her father's study. "I wonder what they're saying," Lizzy said as she began to fold her clothes up and put them in her suitcase.

"Yeah, what are they saying?" Fawn asked as she looked toward the door.

"I'll go and find out," Tinkerbell said and she flew out of the room Lizzy was too busy getting her clothes out of her wardrobe to notice, and down the stairs to the door that was Martin's study. When she reached it, she put her ear against the door. She could hear them talking a bit more clearly, but still not well enough. She moved down to the keyhole and placed her ear next to it. Now she could hear them more clearly.

"Hold on a moment, Martin, did you say that you and Roberts saw a meteorite in the field?" Mrs Perkins asked.

"It wasn't a meteorite, Mrs Perkins," Martin replied. "It was…something else. It was a kind of…transport,"

Tinkerbell went a little wide-eyed when she heard this. A meteorite had crashed into the field and Martin said it was a kind of transport. That was very strange, but if it was a kind of transport as Martin had said, who, or what, was controlling it? Tinkerbell pressed her ear against the keyhole, determined to gather what else might be said.

In the study, Martin paced up and down behind his desk, his hand placed in front of his mouth. Mrs Perkins was standing near the door with her back to it.

"A transport?" she repeated and Martin nodded. "What do you mean by transport, Martin?"

"I mean, something was travelling inside it," he told her. "When we were looking at it, the side of it suddenly collapsed and this…this…creature came out! It was nothing like I had ever seen before! It was a dragon and it had silver skin and was walking on It's arms and legs and was growling and hissing up at us. Then when it retreated back into the meteorite, Roberts, the priest from the village near the crash site and another man went down into the pit and this…kind of…ray came out and fired on them and incinerated them completely and then turned It's attention on the crowd and began vaporizing everyone it saw,"

Mrs Perkins gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth. Tinkerbell gasped as well and went wide-eyed at what she had just heard. Something Martin had never seen before had come out of this meteorite and then fired on the crowd that had gathered around it? This had to be bad. Tinkerbell did not know anyone or anything that could do anything like that. There was no way anything from Neverland would try and hurt Humans. This creature, or most likely creatures,… They were something else.

"When it began firing on the crowd, I started to run," Martin continued "And I only just got away and drove full speed back here. That dust Lizzy and Tinkerbell said I had on me was actually from a group of people that were vaporized in front of me!" he gasped a little as he looked at his hand and then ahead of him. "It…it was horrible!"

"Oh my goodness!" Mrs Perkins said. "So what are you going to do, Martin?" she asked him.

He thought for a moment when she had asked him that. What was he to do? It was obvious they could not stay here, but where were they to go and how were they to get there?

After a few moments, Martin turned to face Mrs Perkins. "I want you to take Lizzy with you and your husband and take her to St Angel village," he said to her. "I'm going to phone my wife and let her know what's going on. Then I'll join you all in St Angel,"

"Won't you be able to come with us now, Martin?" Mrs Perkins asked.

"I don't know, but I don't want to take the risk," he replied. "I just want my daughter away from here. I have a feeling those things in the pit will come out and begin to spread out,"

Mrs Perkins nodded. "I'll call my husband and tell him to come here," she said.

"Use the phone in here," Martin said, taking out a phone from one of the drawers on his desk and handing it to Mrs Perkins, who placed it on the table and began to dial the number.

As she did this, Martin walked over to the window and looked outside. Disbelief was filling him like water filling a tank. He could not believe this was happening. He and his daughter were going to have to leave, and he could only imagine what was taking place at the villages near the crash site of the meteorite. If those things had left, then there was probably panic taking place in the villages. Hopefully, word of what was going on had spread to other villages and towns of what was going on.

Outside the door, Tinkerbell hovered a few inches away from the wooden door, disbelief and shock filling her as well. Never before had this happened. She had never thought that this summer, Lizzy and Martin would have to leave their cottage and go somewhere where they would be safe. It was hard to think about, let alone believe it was really happening.

But what about them? What if these things Martin had said had come out of this meteorite were attacking other fairy camps? Would they leave as well and end up having to go somewhere else on the Mainland to be safe, or would everyone be called back to Neverland? But if that happened, what would happen to everything they had worked for? More importantly, what about the Humans?

Tinkerbell flew back up the stairs to Lizzy's room. As she entered, Lizzy zipped up her suitcase, which was full of her clothes, a few books and a coat. She walked over to her shelf and picked up her fairy house.

"I'm not sure whether to take this or not," she said. "I don't want to throw it away,"

Whilst she was deciding, the other fairies flew over to Tinkerbell.

"So what did you hear them say, Tink?" Fawn asked.

"I…I," she began. "I heard…Lizzy's dad say that…some meteorite had hit the field and then…something came out, he described it as being like a dragon, and it…it came out and then went back into the meteorite…then, he said this kind of ray came out of the meteorite and started firing at everyone in this crowd that had gathered around it and…and..." she began to breathe deeply and struggled to hold back her tears. "And…killed…loads of them,"

The others gasped and looked at each other with wide-eyes. They could not believe what their friend was telling them. Something that had fired on the crowd that had gathered around this crashed meteorite and killed many people…it was horrible!

"Did he say what he was going to do?" Iridessa asked her.

"Yeah, um…he said he wants Mrs Perkins and her husband to take Lizzy to some village and he'll meet them there," she answered.

"What about us?" Vidia asked, in a bit of an annoyed voice.

"I don't know what we're supposed to do, Vidia," Tinkerbell replied.

"Typical," she huffed. "I expected that of him,"

Tinkerbell's eyes narrowed but before as she moved towards Vidia and went to say something, Terence grabbed her arm and shook his head, telling her to stop and not try and start an argument.

"We'll have to try and leave ourselves," he said, letting go of Tinkerbell's arm. "We'll just have to try and go through the rain and warn the camp of what's goi-"

Then, footsteps on wood filled the room and Lizzy and the fairies looked towards the door to see Martin step into the doorway.

"Hello, Lizzy," he said. "A-are you packed?" he asked.

"Yes, father," Lizzy replied.

"Good, um, could you come with me for a second?"

"Um…okay, father,"

Lizzy grabbed her suitcase off her bed and followed her father out of the room and he took her to the bottom of the stairs. The fairies flew over to the door and poked their heads out into the corridor and looked down the stairs to see Martin kneeling down on one knee and with one hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"Now, Lizzy, this is going to be hard for both you and me," he was saying. "Mrs perkins and her husband are taking you to St Angel village. But…But I…I can't come with you at the moment,"

Lizzy's eyes went wide with shock. "What! Why, father?" she exclaimed.

"I have to phone your mother and let her know of what is happening?"

"What exactly is happening, father?"

"Let's just say…there's um…an emergency going on nearby and we may have to leave,"

"Oh," Lizzy went quiet and looked down at the floor and sniffed. Martin sighed sadly and lifted her head up gently with his hand.

"Don't worry, Lizzy," he said softly to her. "You'll be alright,"

"It's not me father, It's you," she cried, hugging him tightly. The fairies looked at each other sadly. "I don't want you to get hurt!"

"I won't, Lizzy, don't worry," he said to her, gently rubbing her back. "I promise you, I'll be okay,"

Lizzy sniffed and wiped away a tear from her eye and sniffed again. "When will be with us again, father?" she asked.

"I'll join you and Mrs Perkins and her husband in the village tonight," he told her. "Afterwards, we'll go to London and meet up with your mother,"

Lizzy nodded. "Be safe, won't you," she said.

Martin nodded. "I'll be alright, Lizzy," he replied.

They hugged each other for a moment longer before Lizzy withdrew from her father. As she did, she looked up the stairs and saw the fairies hovering outside the door.

"What about them, father?" she asked.

Martin looked up the stairs at the fairies. Yes, what about them? Where were they to go? Lizzy had told him that they could not fly in the rain and the storm was likely to last much of the day and night before it passed over and even if they were to go back over there, the other fairies would still have to wait until the storm was over and by that time, what was going on at the pit could have come down here by then. What were they to do?

Finally, Martin stood up. "Take them with you, Lizzy," he said. "Take them with you to the village,"

"Okay," she replied. "What about the other fairies?" she asked.

"When I've phoned your mother, I'll go over and tell them to leave and I'll let them know that Tinkerbell and the others are with you and safe," he told her.

She nodded. At that moment, Mrs Perkins called from the kitchen.

"Martin, my husband's here," she said.

"Okay," he called back. "You best be off, Lizzy," he said to his daughter.

She nodded and he picked up her suitcase and carried it into the kitchen. Tinkerbell and her friends followed them. When they entered the kitchen, they saw Mrs Perkins standing by the door with a large umbrella open. In her hand was a small basket with a few paper bags. She had made some sandwiches and taken some fruit and biscuits for food. Lizzy was putting on her grey coat and hat.

"Okay, that's everything," she said and walked over with her father to the door.

"Are you ready?" Mrs Perkins asked her.

"Almost," Lizzy replied and she looked over at her fairy friends, who flew over to her and she took off her hat and they hopped inside. "Okay, let's go," she said to Mrs Perkins and they, along with Martin who was running alongside, ran to a waiting car on the dirt road outside the front garden gate.

Sitting in the car was an elderly man in his sixties with a small grey beard, short grey hair and was wearing a large black coat with black trousers, a grey suit top and black shoes. He was Mr Perkins, Mrs Perkins' wife. The seats of the car were covered by a tarpaulin that was pulled up from the back of the car. Mrs Perkins climbed in and took Lizzy's case and out it in the back of the car behind them, where Mr Twitches and Cheese were sitting, and Lizzy climbed into the car, resting her hat on her lap.

"Right, well, goodbye and stay safe," Martin said to them. "And thank you two for doing this," he added.

"You too, Martin," Mr Perkins replied. "We'll meet ya later on in St Angel,"

He nodded. "Yes, I'll see you soon,"

Mr Perkins went to start the car and Martin walked back towards the house when Lizzy suddenly piped up.

"Wait!" she said and she quickly climbed out of the car, putting her hat on her seat as she got out of the car, and ran up to her father. He knelt down and she hugged him tightly and he hugged her back. Tinkerbell and her friends watched them and she wiped away a tear from her eye. Iridessa did the same and Bobble lifted up his goggles and wiped away a tear from his eye. It was a loving moment, but it was very sad as well. With what was going on, there was a feeling, and, even though they did not like the thought, a chance that they might not see each other again. Tinkerbell had this feeling the most as she did believe that, like Martin, these dragons were unlikely going to spare anyone alone they might come across.

Lizzy sniffed, a few tears running down her face. "I love you, father," she said.

Martin nodded lightly, struggling to hold back a flow of tears as well. "I love you too, Lizzy," he said to her softly. "You be good, won't you,"

"I won't be able to get up to mischief whilst I'm away," she joked lightly and he gave a little laugh.

He gave her one last hug and a kiss on the forehead before he withdrew from her. "You better go, Lizzy," he said.

She nodded and ran back to the car and climbed in, placing the hat on her lap and looked over at her father, who was walking back towards the cottage. Next to her, Mr Perkins started the car. The engine spluttered loudly and backfired a few times. Martin stopped at the doorway and turned to look back at the car.

"Goodbye, father!" Lizzy called, waving to him as the car began to move forward.

He waved back. "Goodbye, Lizzy," he replied and watched as the car rose up over the hill and then drove down the other side and disappeared. "Take care of yourself, darling," he muttered hopefully and sadly.

Lizzy sat back in her seat and sighed sadly, wiping a tear away from her eye with her hand. Tinkerbell patted her hand and Lizzy smiled down at them.

"I'm glad you're all here," she said.

Tinkerbell hovered up to Lizzy and gave her a small hug against her cheek and Lizzy placed her hand against her back to hug her back. The others, apart from Vidia, who was too busy watching the passing landscape, came up and hugged her as well.

"Thank you all," she said.

Behind them at the cottage, Martin sighed as the headlights of the car disappeared from sight and sighed. He was hoping that she and her fairy friends would be okay and he hoped to meet them again, but he had to finish off a few things here first. He would be overjoyed when he met them later on tonight in St Angel.

Heaving another sigh, Martin waked back into the cottage and shut the door behind him.


	7. Leaving

Martin walked back into his study and over to his desk where Mrs Perkins had left the phone. He had to phone his wife. As he dialled the number, he looked outside through the window and saw another crack of thunder illuminate the land. Looking in the direction of the north, where he had gone earlier, he had a feeling that those things at the pit were leaving what had brought them here and were probably now spreading out. He sighed in frustration as the phone rang, but no one picked it up.

"C'mon, Rebecca!" Martin growled as he placed a hand against the wall next to him as if he was trying to stop himself from falling over. "Pick up!"

A few moment passed with silence, save for the faint ringing from the phone and the pitter patter sound of the rain hitting the window. After a few moments, Martin sighed and slammed the phone down on the receiver. She had not picked up the phone. What was going on north of here had probably spread to London by now, or…what if…?

Martin shook that thought of his head. No! No, that can't be happening. No, it wasn't.

"I best get my coat then," he said.

He walked back into the kitchen and grabbed his coat and put it on, buttoning it up. He checked his pocket to make sure he had his car key, which he did.

"Oh, there's something I must not forget," he muttered to himself.

He walked out of the kitchen and up the steps, two at a time, to the corridor at the top and walked down the corridor to his room across the hall from Lizzy's. He opened the door and walked inside.

Martin's room was large, about the same size as Lizzy's, and square shaped with a bed placed against the middle of the right wall. Two small suitcases were placed underneath it. A small bedside cabinet was placed next to his bed with a small oil lamp, a photograph of him, Lizzy and Tinkerbell taken last summer, and his wedding ring. On the wall opposite Martin was a small window. Along the left wall was a bookcase filled with books and journals on his research and British wildlife. A small table was also placed along the left wall with an oil lamp on it and a chair resting behind it. Along the wall to the right of the door was a wooden wardrobe and along the wall to the left of the door was a small chest of drawers.

Martin walked over to his bed and pulled out one of the suitcases and placed it on his bed and opened it. He began to rifle through his wardrobe and chest of drawers and empty some of his clothes into them.

"Right, boxers, socks," he was muttering to himself as he packed his suitcase. "Another two pairs of trousers, a few tops,"

As he searched through his wardrobe, he came across a small wooden box. He picked it up and opened it and took out a small revolver pistol with several small clips of ammunition. He emptied the cartridges into his hand and put the box back in the wardrobe and then put the cartridges and the pistol in the suitcase. He might need it later on in case he came across one of those creatures, or maybe someone that might try and steal his luggage.

"Right, is that everything?" he asked himself, quickly looking around his room for anything he might have missed.

As he went to close his suitcase, he remembered the photograph and the ring on the bedside cabinet. He walked over to it and picked up the photograph of him, Lizzy and Tinkerbell, who was resting on Lizzy's shoulder, all of them smiling at the camera with a green field, several trees and a setting sun behind the hills in the background. He sighed. Back then, they had been happy and they had been happy for the last few days, but now….now all of that was changing. For the first time, they had to leave their home to go somewhere else where they would be safe. Then again, where would they go where they could be safe? For all he knew, these things could be spreading everywhere. Maybe across the entire county, maybe even the whole country or maybe even the world!

Martin then picked up the ring. He sighed sadly as he gazed at it. He remembered him and his wife's wedding day eleven years ago. They were young and happy and even more so when Lizzy had been born. It all seemed so long ago now. He was worried as well. She had not answered the phone call he had sent her. For all he knew, something could have happened, hopefully nothing had but he just could not get the feeling out of his head that something had happened in London as well.

Sighing once more, he put the photograph in the suitcase and put the ring in his pocket. He then closed his suitcase and walked towards the door. He stopped there and looked back at the room, probably for the last time and walked down the corridor and down the stairs into the kitchen and opened the door that led out into the storm raging outside. Martin checked to see if his coat was buttoned up tightly and ran outside, covering his head with his other arm, to his car, which was parked on the grass next to the cottage. He had pulled the tarpaulin up on the way back so the seats were dry. He placed the suitcase in the back of the car behind the seats and went to climb into the seats when he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, of course, I must warn the other fairies," he said to himself.

He climbed into the car seat and started the vehicle. The engine spluttered and the gunshot sounds of the backfiring momentarily filed the air before it was blocked out by another crack of thunder. He drove the car away from the cottage and towards the home tree on the other side of the field. As he drove, he swerved to avoid a small ditch and the car almost tipped over on It's side, but, thankfully, it did not. The rain pounded down hard on the tarpaulin above him and some sprayed into his face. Martin grunted and wiped his face clean of the water.

Finally, after a bumpy and treacherous ride, he reached the home tree. He brought the car to a halt and climbed out of the car and ran over to the tree, his shoes squelching loudly as they landed on the soaked grass. When he reached the tree, he knelt down in the small clearing for the doves and peered through the open leafless entrance into the tree.

"Uh, hello?" he called.

Nothing came back in reply. No jingling replied or any squeaking from any animals they had kept in here.

"Hello, is anybody in the tree?" he called, peering in closer so his eye was almost covering entire doorway.

Still nothing came back. Now this was strange. They all knew his and Lizzy's voice so they would have come out, but…no one was in. His eyes looked around the interior of the tree, but saw that it just looked abandoned. Where had they gone?

"Where _have_ they gone?" Martin asked himself

Another crack of thunder illuminated the air and Martin jumped in surprise. There was no one here. He was going to have to tell Lizzy and her friends this when he re-joined them. He got up from the ground and ran back over to his car and jumped into the driver's seat and drove the car back across the field and in the direction Lizzy, Mr and Mrs Perkins and the fairies had gone.


	8. The machine of the enemy

**Meanwhile, at a nearby village ten miles from the cottage **

The rain was beginning to lighten a little in the villages around the cottage. Mr and Mrs Perkins' car tarpaulin was soaked with water but they, along with Lizzy and her fairy friends, were dry underneath. As they entered the village of New Haven, they saw that even though it was raining, in which many people would not be out, the roads in the village were filled with cars and there were many people on the pavements. What really drew everyone's attention was that the cars were all heading on direction and some people were following with suitcases in their hands. Most people along the pavement were watching them go by with confused looks. However, Mr and Mrs Perkins, Lizzy and her fairy friends knew what was going on, well, just about. They had not seen these things Martin was telling Mrs Perkins about, who had later told her husband and Lizzy, but they knew that whatever they were, they were dangerous.

As their car entered the village, Mr Perkins began looking around for a way around the traffic jam in front of them.

"Right, which way are we to go?" he said to himself.

As he was looking around, Lizzy and her fairy friends, who were sitting either on her lap, her shoulders or in the back of the car, where Mr Twitches and Cheese were asleep, watching the people on the pavement and the cars, who seemed to interested in everything else to notice the fairies even when they were passing right in front of them.

"What's going on?" Rosetta asked as she watched a group of people walk past on the pavement, each carrying a suitcase or two.

"Everyone's leaving," Silvermist replied.

"Where are they going to go?" Fawn asked.

"Beats me," Terence replied.

Tinkerbell, who was sitting on Lizzy's lap, saw a mother walk past with her child, who was about nine years old and who she was holding her by the hand. Her child was asking her mother why they were leaving their home and she sighed sadly. These children here, they had no idea what was going on and they did not know if they would ever see their homes again with what was going on.

Lizzy had also been quiet for the journey. It was obvious she was missing her father. She did not want to leave him earlier on, but he had wanted her go with Mr and Mrs Perkins so she would be safe. He really did love her and, besides, he was going to meet up with them later on tonight in St Angel and Lizzy would be overjoyed to see him again. Sighing quietly, she rested her head against the back of her seat.

Tinkerbell looked up at Lizzy when she heard her sigh and flew up to her and sat on her shoulder.

"Oh, hello, Tinkerbell," Lizzy said lowly.

"Are you alright, Lizzy?" she asked.

Even though it was jingling to Lizzy, she got a vague idea of what Tinkerbell was saying to her.

"Yes, I-I'm fine, Tinkerbell," she replied, trying to sound a bit more cheerful.

Tinkerbell gave her an _'I'm not so sure about that'_look and Lizzy sighed. "Alright, Tinkerbell, you win. If you want to know, I'm still worried about my father,"

Tinkerbell placed her tiny hand against Lizzy cheek to try and comfort her as if to say _"Don't worry, Lizzy. He'll be fine," _and Lizzy gave her a small smile in return.

"Thank you, Tinkerbell," she said. "I'm glad I have you all here. If both my father and you all weren't here, I don't think anything would cheer me up,"

"Right, keep it moving!" a voice barked from down the street and Tinkerbell and Lizzy looked down the road with the other fairies to see a policeman walking along the pavement, shouting at the cars to continue moving up the road. "C'mon, move forward calmly and quickly," he ordered.

"They want to get everyone out of here," Mr Perkins said.

"Yes, I just hope we don't get stuck anywhere," his wife replied.

"Right, keep those guns moving!" another voice barked from somewhere, though this time it sounded more commanding rather than barking like the policeman.

Those in the car, along with several other people in their cars and a few people on the pavement looked right at a small side road that led off from the main road to see a horse coming towards them. Behind it was some sort of wagon that was attached to the reins and attached to the wagon was a large gun that looked to be an artillery piece. About twelve soldiers, six on either side, were walking alongside the horse. Another horse that was pulling a wagon with a gun attached to it was following close behind with another twelve soldiers following that one. Some of the soldiers were carrying rifles. Leading this was an elderly looking army officer.

"Right, some of ya are gonna 'ave to move over to the left a bit!" the army officer said as he ran ahead into the road.

Mr Perkins, along with the car in front and the other cars behind, moved the car to the left a bit so it was almost half travelling on the pavement to allow the two horse carriages to pass with the soldiers. Lizzy and the fairies watched them pass.

"Whoa!" Fawn gasped, going wide-eyed, which all the others were doing as well.

"Those are big guns," Bobble said.

"D'you think they're going after those things?" Iridessa asked.

"Most likely," Tinkerbell said, landing next to her. "I think there could be a fight coming,"

"D'you think they'll win?" Clank piped up.

Tinkerbell shrugged. "I don't know," she replied.

They watched as the two horses and the soldiers following next to them turned into the main road and began moving up the path from where they had all come from. Then, a large dark green truck appeared from the end of the side street and drove down it and turned into the main road, following the horses and men. Another one followed close behind the first and another one followed after that. As the trucks turned and showed their backs to the people in the street, the fairies saw that each of the trucks was filled with more soldiers, some of them carrying large metallic pipe-like objects with legs attached to them.

"Oh my," Mrs Perkins said as she watched the trucks disappear up the road behind the flow of people and cars behind them. "I hope Martin's okay,"

**Meanwhile, with Martin**

THUD!

Martin's car bumped as it hit another pothole in the road and almost threw him out of his seat, though he grabbed the steering wheel and managed to keep himself in the car. The rain seemed to be falling down harder where he was and the light wind was blowing some of it into his face. He grunted as another wave of water was blown into his face and wiped it off from him, but was determined to keep going. Even though the rain getting in his face was starting to annoy him, he knew that he had to get as far away from the cottage as possible and get to Lizzy and the others in St Angel as quickly as he could. St Angel was to the north east of London, near a short, but large river that was on the outskirts of the city.

As he drove on, he was hoping that Lizzy and her friends were okay. He prayed that they were far from what was going on hoped that they were out of any danger. The further they got away from the cottage, the better, but even if they were far away, he wanted to be with them to make sure for himself that they were okay.

Locked in his own thoughts, Martin failed to notice a rabbit run across the road.

"AAAAHHH!" he yelled.

The rabbit, revealed by the headlights on Martin's car, squeaked and jumped off the road and into the bushes near a line of trees that ran along the side of the road. At the same time, Martin swerved to avoid it. The tires of the car screeched loudly as he suddenly threw the steering wheel right and it fell over onto It's side and scrapped along the paved road to the side. Martin screamed as he tried to pull himself away from the road and stop his head being taken off. Finally, after a few hectic seconds, the car came to a halt and the sudden halt threw Martin out of his seat and into a ditch by the side of the road.

"Ooooowww!" Martin groaned as he sat up and rubbed the side of his head.

That was a close call for the rabbit, but a bad decision and time for Martin. His car was now on It's side and it was going to take more than him on his own to pull it back upright. Looking down the back of his jacket and trousers, he saw they were soaking wet and covered with mud.

"Oh no!" he sighed. "I'll have to dry off when I reach St Angel," he said to himself as he got up and walked up the side of the ditch towards his car.

CRASH! Martin yelled and tumbled back into the ditch again to the bottom near a bush. Groaning again, he sat up and brushed a bit of dirt off himself and pulled himself towards the edge of the ditch. When he reached it, he pulled himself up…and gasped and his eyes went wider than ever before in his entire life, though this time through shock and fear.

Towering over him was a machine, a huge machine, something he had never seen before. It was nothing like he or anyone he knew had seen before, in fact he knew nobody had ever seen anything like this before. It was a tripod and it looked like a creature, a kind of monster. It had a large tear drop shaped head, the point being at the back of the head, with two huge neon green eyes on the front. A cylindrical metallic neck came down from the bottom of the middle of the neck to a large mid-section that looked like a tongue that rose, then went down and then rose again with the tip just starting to go down again. Three huge thin metal legs, a little wider than the width of Martin's car, descended down from the mid-section, two on the sides and one from the back, the left leg being the one that had landed on top of Martin's car and now almost smashed it in two. From the front of the mid-section was a large group of metallic ropes that were waving about in mid-air like the tentacles of an octopus waving about in the sea trying to catch a fish. On the top of the mid-section behind the metallic neck was a small dome-like object that rose about six feet from the mid-section. The cylinder ray that Martin had seen in the pit earlier on today was now attached to the side of the mid-section of the monster. The entire thing was about sixty to seventy, maybe seventy five, feet tall and was a silver colour.

Martin gasped again, though this time more quietly, and ducked down in fear as he watched the tripod turn It's enormous head left and right as if it were a predator searching for It's prey, which, in an ironic way, it was. The tripod was the predator and Martin, if he was to be found, was the prey.

_OOOOOORRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! !_

The noise sent a chill down Martin's back and he backed off towards the bush behind him, trying to keep as quiet as possible so as not to draw the attention of the tripod. He watched as It's tentacles waved madly in mid-air as if they were trying to break away from the tripod. Seeing this thing was, in a way, quite amazing, but it was scary as well, _very_, _very_ scary.

"Get in 'ere, ya berk!" suddenly, a hand grabbed Martin and pulled him into the bush before he had even time to yell. As he looked up, he saw a soldier with short blonde hair and blue eyes looking down at him. The soldier looked a right mess. His dark green uniform was torn at the sleeves, chest and stomach, much of it, along with his hands, face and parts of his hair, was covered in mud, he was soaking wet and he had a small cut on his cheek and another on both of his hands. He looked like he had been in a battle and had fled from it.

"What the…?" Martin gasped as he looked at the soldier.

"Ya lucky ya weren't spotted, mate," the soldier said to him.

"W-w-what is…what is that thing?" he asked the soldier.

"It's one o' them devils from the pit," the soldier answered.

"Did you go and fight them?" Martin asked, looking at the soldier, who nodded.

"Yea, me and me company went out terwards that area when we 'eard of that meteorite, or whatever it was, hitting there earlier. When we arrived and saw it had killed everyone there, we set up and got ready ter fire on it and then that tripod," he nodded out through a small opening in the leaves above them at the machine, which was beginning to move forward down the road, It's feet shaking the ground with every step it took, and began emitting the spine chilling noise. A loud crash came from the road as one of the legs uprooted a tree. "Came out an' started firin' at us with that death ray o' theirs. B'fore we knew it, all the 'orses had been killed, all the guns destroyed and half the men I went there with dead. I legged it and found meself 'ere," he concluded. "An' just in time as well," he added.

"Well, thank you," Martin replied. "I went to that pit earlier on today and I only just got away when they started firing at us. One of my neighbours was killed. Now I'm trying to join my daughter and her friends in St Angel and-wait, did you say…one of them?"

"Yea, mate," the soldier replied. "As I was leggin' it, I looked back and saw two more o' those things come out of tha' pit and they started heading terwards the nearby villages and towns. This one must 'ave lost It's way or's scouting ahead to clear a path for the others so they can wait for 'elp and-"

"Wait," Martin interrupted. "D'you mean; they-they're g-getting help?" he stammered.

The soldier nodded. "Yea. This meteorite ain't the first to crash. We've been told tha' four have landed in Ireland, one outside Dubli', one near Cork, one near Belfast and one somewhere alon' the Atlanti' coast of Ireland, one's landed outside Glasgow, one outside Edinburgh and one on the northern coast in Scotland, one outside Swansea, another outside a mining village and another outside Cardiff in Wales and in England, three 'ave landed in Cornwall, two north of London, one o' them being the one you and I wen' to, and the other in near Birmin'ham, one outside Hull, one outside Sout'ampton between there and Portsmout' and one outside Dover,"

Martin could not believe what he was hearing. For a moment, he sat where he was, wide-eyed and overcome with disbelief and shock. Great Britain…it was…it was at war against an enemy that had come from the skies and was landing all over the British Isles. There were no way he could imagine how much panic and fear this new enemy had brought and was to bring. It was hard to think about, let alone truly believe that it was really happening.

After a few moments, Martin snapped out of his trance and began to crawl back towards the road.

"Where ya goin', mate?" the soldier asked him.

"To see if I have anything left that I, or we, might need," he replied.

He poked his head out from the bush and looked down the road to see the tripod had gone, though his car had been smashed up. Along with almost being broken in two, It's headlights were smashed, the seat had been torn, the suitcase had been crushed, along with much of what was inside it, and metal below the seats had been crushed as well. The tree the tripod had uprooted was lying in the road, it's roots having been torn clean from the soil, which was lying in the road in great piles as well alongside the tree.

"Is it gone?" the soldier asked from the bushes.

"Yes, It's gone," Martin replied.

"Ah, good," the soldier replied and walked out of the bushes.

Martin knelt down by the side of the remains of his car and began to search through his crushed suitcase. The photograph was broken, his clothes were dirty, wet and some were torn and scattered everywhere and some of the pistol cartridges had spilled out, the bullets scattered over the road.

Martin sighed as he picked up the remains of the photograph and dropped it down on the ground. That was a good picture and probably the only thing it had to remind him of Lizzy and now it was gone. He searched through the clothes and found his revolver underneath one of his pairs of trousers with a cartridge next to it.

"Able to salvage anythin'?" the soldier asked.

"Just this," Martin replied, holding up his revolver and the bullet cartridge. "And now that they have tripods, it won't be of much use,"

"Well, It's better than nothi'," the soldier replied.

_VVVRRRRROOOOOOOOMMMMMMM! !_

The two looked left down the road. That noise sounded close, and the tripod making it probably was as well.

"We better go," Martin said.

"Good idea," the soldier replied and the two went back into the bushes and began to walk down the road.


	9. St Angel village

**Later that night**

The storm had finally passed by the time the night had fallen over Great Britain. The clouds had moved on, revealing a clear sky filled with thousands upon thousands of stars. A half crescent moon was visible in the night sky as well, whining brighter than any of the stars. It looked so peaceful, but for Great Britain, tonight was not a peaceful night. News of the first attack north of London had spread quickly across the country and the government had been quick to mobilize the army to defeat these invaders, but alas, the flow of refugees had slowed down the advance of the army, making it impossible for them to get to the crash sites of these meteorites the invaders had arrived in, and even if they were to get to the crash sites of these meteorites, the technology of the British army was…inferior to the invaders. Their death rays could wipe out scores of people in the blink of an eye; they could destroy entire villages with just a few blasts from it and set fire to…everything. Even if something was not flammable was hit by their death ray, it would seemingly burst into flames or melt as if it was flammable.

For Great Britain, this was It's darkest hour.

On the main road leading to the village of St Angel, a convoy of cars drove down the paved road towards the settlement. About half-way down the convoy was Mr and Mrs Perkins' car. All of the cars had switched on their headlights so as to alert any military to their presence and now the few remaining lights from cars parked in the village and the occasional one from a building from within the village led them in.

In Mr and Mrs Perkins' car, Lizzy was asleep, leaning against the back of her seat with her blanket draped over her. Most of her fairy friends were asleep as well. Rosetta, Fawn, Silvermist, Iridessa, Bobble and Clank were sleeping against Mr Twitches and Vidia and Terence were sleeping against Cheese, Vidia on one side and Terence on the other.

Tinkerbell, however, sat alone near the edge of the back of the car next to Lizzy's shoulder, wide awake with her legs brought up to her chest and her head resting on her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs. She watched as the moonlight from above partially showed the many trees and shadows of other people walking by along the side of the road. She sighed and looked up at the sky. She was trying to search for the second star on the right, the one that led to Neverland, the one that led to her home.

Home. That thought struck her like a sledgehammer. Her thoughts went back to home and what the other fairies were doing now. What would they do? Would Queen Clarion come down to help search for them? In fact, did they even know what was going on? It was a crazy thought but; did they? Did they know that the Mainland, a place the fairies of Neverland had worked so hard on for so many centuries, was now under siege from something that was killing everything on it? And what of the other fairy camps? Had they been attacked?

"Hey, Tink," a voice said from behind.

Tinkerbell looked over her shoulder and saw Terence walking over to her.

"Hey, Terence," she greeted lowly.

He sat down next to her. "Are you alright? You've been over here on your own for a while," he said to her.

She nodded slightly. "Yeah, don't worry, Terence, I'm fine," she replied, but Terence was not so convinced.

"No, Tink, there's something wrong, I can tell. C'mon, what's the matter?" he asked her.

"Nothing," she insisted.

He raised his eyebrow as he looked at her. When she saw this, she sighed.

"Alright, if you want to know why I'm over here and I don't sound alright is because I'm thinking of home," she told him.

"Home?"

She nodded. "Yes. I'm thinking; do they know, or will they know? And if they do know, will they do anything?" She looked at him. "D'you think they'll do anything?"

Terence did not reply. He looked up at the stars as Tinkerbell had been doing a few moments earlier as if trying to find the star that led to Neverland. He had no idea of what Queen Clarion and the fairy council back on Neverland would do. Did they even know what was happening? And even if they did; what were they planning to do to help? Then again,…what could they do to help? After all, the fairies were not able to do much good against Humans and now that the Mainland was being invaded by creatures that the Humans, or even the fairies, had never seen before, for all they knew they could be absolutely helpless against these creatures. They knew nothing about them, apart from the fact that they were killing Humans, which meant that they hated them, but that was about it. They did not know what they looked like, apart from the vague description Tinkerbell had explained to them at the cottage earlier on, where they came from and, probably more importantly, why they were here.

"Terence?" Tinkerbell said, snapping him out of his skyward trance. He looked back at her. "Do you think they'll do anything?" she asked him again.

"I…uh," he replied, but paused for a moment. "I…I don't know, Tink," he said after a few seconds.

"Neither do I," she replied, looking back out at the passing crowds.

A few moments later, the convoy arrived in the village. St Angel was supposed to be one of the most beautiful villages in England, but at the moment it looked the complete opposite. Not an ugly village, but it just felt…unwelcoming. It looked like a ghost town. There were barely any lights on in any of the houses as they passed them, there were no gas lamps lit along the roads to brighten up the way and the pavements and the parks that would usually be packed with people going to the shops and couples with their children and lovers going for walks and sightseers enjoying the scenery around them were now empty. There were a few people walking about, but they were not here to have fun or go for a romantic walk or anything like that. They were here because they had been forced to flee their homes and hope they could escape these monsters that were coming down from the skies and destroying and killing at will.

Mr Perkins drove the car of the paved road and into a small clearing on the pavement that was in front a pub. As the car jolted to a halt, Lizzy stirred and yawned.

"W-where are…oh, we?" she asked as she woke up, rubbing her eyes.

"We're in St Angel, dear," Mrs Perkins told her.

Tinkerbell and Terence heard the others stirring behind them.

"What time of day is it?" Rosetta asked.

"It's night time," Tinkerbell answered as they woke up one-by-one.

"Are we in that village we said we would meet Lizzy's dad?" Iridessa asked as she woke up and yawned and stretched her arms.

"Yep," Tinkerbell replied.

Mr Perkins turned off the car and he and his wife got out. Mr Twitches woke up, stretched and yawned and jumped out of the car to the ground below. Lizzy grabbed her suitcase and climbed out of the car. Tinkerbell and her friends flew up and hovered outside. Cheese jumped down from the back of the car to the car seat and then to the ground below.

"Where are we going, Mrs Perkins?" Lizzy asked.

"In there, dear," she replied, pointing to the pub.

The pub was a large building, about forty feet long and thirty feet wide, with two floors and a tiled roof. A chimney was placed at the left end of the building and a bit of smoke was rising out of it. There were several windows along the front of the ground floor of the pub and the lights were on inside them. A few carriages were parked in front of the pub as well, indicating that, along with the lights on in the pub, that there were people here as well. The group walked over to the pub and walked through the open door into the room. The room took up the front half of the ground floor of the pub. A wooden bar was placed along the back wall and at the right end was a door that had the word _Private _above it. The walls of the room were a cream colour and several wooden beams descended down from the ceiling to the floor. There were several tables in the room, but they had been moved to the sides to allow room for a few beds that the army had prepared. The cash register lay on the floor in front of the bar, having been smashed open, and all the money inside it, save for a few coins that were scattered across the floor, was gone. Upon seeing this, Lizzy shook her head. Who would care so much about money, not that it would do them any good now? It was unlikely they were going to try and bribe a way out of the country, not when there were millions of other people trying to flee these invaders.

A few people were also in the pub, about eight including a couple, who were asleep on the beds, and a man sitting at the end of the bar near the soldiers. The rest were soldiers who had set up a small machine gun nest near a smashed open window near the right end of the pub. As the group entered, the door behind the bar opened and an army officer in his thirties appeared.

"Ah, more arrivals," he said, climbing over the bar. Tinkerbell and her friends hid behind Lizzy, Vidia going first as she was still wary of other Humans. Cheese hid behind Lizzy's foot next to Mr Twitches. "You lot fled as well?" he asked.

"Yes, unfortunately," Mr Perkins replied.

"Well, we got a few beds spare for you all," he said. "Help yourself to a drink and there's a bit of food in the kitchen if you're hungry,"

"Thank you," Mr Perkins said and he, his wife and Lizzy walked over to a few beds placed along the wall to the right of the door, the fairies, Mr Twitches and Cheese following close behind. As they passed the officer, he saw a glimmer of gold light behind the back of the young girl and looked to see the fairies there. He blinked several times and rubbed his eyes.

"I've got to stop drinking so much," he said to himself and he walked out of the pub outside.

Lizzy laid down on one of the beds and sighed. "Well, we just have to wait for my father now," she said. "I hope he's okay,"

"Oh don't worry, dear," Mrs Perkins reassured her as she sat down on her bed next to Lizzy's. "I'm sure he's on his way here. He might even turn up tonight,"

Lizzy gave a small smile to Mrs Perkins. "Thanks, Mrs Perkins," she said.

"Oh, c'mon, for crying out loud!" the man sitting on the end of the bar growled, drawing the three's looks.

"D'you need help, son?" Mr Perkins asked.

"I'd appreciate it," the man replied and Mr Perkins got up and walked over to the man to help him with his radio. Mrs Perkins opened her luggage and took out one of the paper bags of food she had brought with them.

"Are you hungry, Lizzy?" she asked.

"Oh, yes, please, Mrs Perkins," Lizzy replied and she took a cheese sandwich from the bag and began to eat it.

On the floor next to her, her fairy friends had gathered in a group and were talking about what the fair council might do, whether they knew and where these invaders came from.

"What do you think Queen Clario'll do?" Silvermist asked.

"Well, does she even know?" Clank asked.

"I don't know, in fact I don't think she does," Silvermist replied. "We would have had a messenger or something come to us if she knew,"

"Yeah, but sugarcane, don't forget that we have been on the move," Rosetta told her.

"Oh, yeah," Silvermist said lowly.

"So where d'you think they came from?" Fawn asked.

"Who knows," Bobble replied.

"Maybe they're an undiscovered form of life from Neverland," Clank suggested, but Terence shook his head.

"Nah, that can't be," he replied. "I've been over most of Neverland and so has Fairy Gary and he's met virtually every form of life you would expect to see on Neverland,"

"Maybe they're from another country," Tinkerbell suggested.

"Another what?" Vidia asked her as everyone looked at her, confused.

"The other day, Lizzy showed me this globe of the Earth and the Mainland where we are is only a small island on it and It's called a country, or the Humans call it Great Britain," she explained to her friends. "There's loads of other countries, or main lands, on Earth, so maybe they're from one of them,"

The others looked at each. They knew nothing of these other main land's Tinkerbell had just explained to them so she could be right. Tinkerbell was certain they might be from Earth because even though Lizzy had explained other countries to her, she still knew very little and even though Humans covered almost every part of the Earth, there was a chance that these invaders may have come from an undiscovered region of Earth. If so though, why had not been seen before by the Humans?

Then, Tinkerbell felt her stomach growl. She had not eaten anything for most of the day.

"Oooh!" she said, placing her hand on her stomach. "Is anyone else hungry?" she asked.

"Yeah, my belly's growling," Rosetta replied.

"Yeah, I'm kinda hungry as well," Iridessa said.

"Me too," Fawn piped up. "What about you, Cheese?" she asked the field mouse sitting behind her, who nodded.

"I'll ask Lizzy if she has anything for us," Tinkerbell said and she flew up to Lizzy, who was taking a bite out of her sandwich. When she saw Tinkerbell, she quickly swallowed her bite.

"Hello, Tinkerbell," she said.

Tinkerbell smiled and nodded and pointed towards her food bag.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Lizzy said apologetically. "I forgot about you all for a moment. Hang on," she reached into the bag and took out another cheese sandwich. "I hope you all like cheese," she said and placed it on the floor between them. Tinkerbell nodded at Lizzy to say thanks and hovered down to join her friends who were tucking into the sandwich.

"Oh my goodness, this is so good," Clank said as he took a bite out of two large chunks of bread with a bit of cheese placed between them.

"Wow, I forgot how much I liked this," Rosetta said.

"Yeah, me too," Fawn replied. "There ya go, Cheese," she said, giving him a large part of cheese from the sandwich, which he took in his paws and began to nibble on.

"Oh, hang on," Mr Perkins said from the bar as he and the man seemed to have finally got the radio working. "Have we…Yes!"

The radio crackled to life. Static was all that came out from it first, and then voices began to come from it.

_KZK… "The Bri-(static)-government has declared-(static)-state of emergency. The army has been mobilized and-(static)-ordered a general evacuation-(static)-population of major population centres. Evacuation ports have been set up along the coasts in Hampshire, Yorkshire, Sussex, Norfolk, Devon, Argyll, Aberdeenshire, the eastern areas of Lothian and Berwickshire. All civilians near these evacuation ports have been advised to flee to the for evacuation to the Mainland continent. In other news, observatories have warned that more explosions have been seen on the planet Mars…which suggests that more cylinders are likely to land within the next twelve hours. Where exactly is unknown,"_

Everyone in the pub, including the couple who had woken up to the noise of the talking, looked at each other. So they finally knew where these invaders were coming from. Mars.

"I cannot believe they're coming from Mars," Lizzy said.

The fairies just looked at each other with confused looks. Mars? Where, or what, was Mars?

"Any of you guys know where she means?" Clank asked and they all shook their heads.

"I'll ask," Tinkerbell piped up and she flew up to Lizzy who had given a digestive biscuit to Mr Twitches. She tapped Lizzy on the shoulder and turned to face her.

"Oh, are you okay, Tinkerbell?" she asked.

Tinkerbell nodded and waved her arms around in front of her face and then pointed at the radio.

"That's a radio," Lizzy told her. "It-" she stopped when Tinkerbell shook her head and thought for a moment on how she was going to explain what she wanted to task to Lizzy.

Then, an idea popped into her head. She hovered down to her friends and talked to them for a moment, which was all jingling to Lizzy, and they sprayed a cloud of pixie dust onto the floor. Tinkerbell then hovered down and began to write letters into the dust. Lizzy watched intently as Tinkerbell began to spell out a word: _M-A-R-S_. Mars. Tinkerbell then waved her hands in front of her face again and then pointed down at the spelling to say _"Where is Mars?"_

"Oh," Lizzy said, finally getting what Tinkerbell was asking her. "I don't know much about Mars, my father told me about it a long time ago. It's the third planet from the Sun and, well…at least until today, it was supposed to have been a dead planet. Nothing but desert where nothing could survive,"

The other fairies looked at each other. So they were coming from another planet. Mars was a new name to them, they had never heard of it before, or probably even anyone in Neverland had never heard of it before. It was partly amazing to know about this, but it was very shocking now because of what was going on.

"Righ', c'mon!" a voice barked from the entrance into the pub. "Bed time! Lights out!"

Mr Perkins walked back over to the group and laid down on his bed. "Best get some sleep, love," he said.

His wife nodded and set her suitcase down on the floor next to her bed. "C'mon, Lizzy, best get some sleep," she said to her.

"Okay, Mrs Perkins," Lizzy replied.

She put the bag of food back in Mrs Perkins' suitcase and laid down in the bed on her side facing her friends, who were also beginning to set down for the night.

"Good night fairies," she said to them.

They all waved or jingled in reply and made themselves comfy. Rosetta, Fawn, Silvermist, Iridessa, Bobble, Clank and Vidia all leant against Mr Twitches and Cheese laid down in front of them and Tinkerbell and Terence laid down against him. A moment later, the lights went out, only to be replaced by the faint glimmer of an oil lamp turning on by the window where the soldiers were, who were quietly muttering to themselves. The shadow of the man who had the radio passed by them as he walked over to his bed placed against the wall near the window before he disappeared into the darkness.

"Hey Terence?" Tinkerbell asked as she looked at him, his blonde hair and face just visible in the light coming from the oil lamp.

"Yeah, Tinkerbell?" he replied. "What is it?"

"D'you think we'll make it through this?" she asked him.

He did not reply straight away. Tinkerbell saw his eyes look down at the floor, lost in thought through her question. If she was confused or worried on whether they would survive, then he was just as confused and worried as her. But would they live? Would any of them make it through this invasion from another planet? That was something they did not know and they probably only would know at the end of this.

"I don't know, Tinkerbell," he replied after a few moments. "I don't know. Anyway, we best get some sleep. Night,"

She nodded. "Night," she replied and laid on her side, resting her head against Cheese's side and looked ahead at the wall. Her eyelids began to grow and she let sleep take her away.

_Several hours later_

The dead of night had descended onto St Angel. The moon shined brightly in the clear sky and the stars still glimmered brightly. However, the village was still partly alive with activity. A few more people and/or cars would arrive every hour and swell the amount of refugees in the village. Another regiment of soldiers had arrived as well and had set up a gun position on the outskirts of the village to defend it if it was to be attacked.

In the pub, all was quiet. The soldiers had decided to take a few hours' sleep with the people inside the bar. Near one of the windows along the wall where the door was, Lizzy stirred and turned over in her sleep. Next to her, Tinkerbell did the same. Next to them, Bobble had his head resting on Fawn's shoulder and Silvermist was leaning against Clank, who was now half-leaning on the floor.

Suddenly, a small rumble began to shake the pub a little. Well, a rumble to the people but to the fairies it was more like someone was shaking the floor. Fawn stirred and sat up, making Bobble's head thud to the floor, which woke him up with a groan.

"Are you alright, Fawn?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she replied, but before she could say anything else, the pub began to shake more now, only this time it was gradually getting more violent. The others stirred around them.

"What's going on?" Vidia moaned as she woke up and rubbed her eyes.

"Why's the building shaking?" Silvermist asked.

Then, a faint roaring sound filled the air and began to grow louder. By this time, the Humans were stirring as well as the glass on the light on the ceiling and on the glasses on the wall behind the bar began to shake and jingle loudly. One fell off and smashed, which pretty much woke everyone up with a gasp.

"What the…?" Lizzy gasped as she woke up and rubbed her eyes, breathing heavily.

"What the 'ell's going on?" one of the soldiers asked, clutching his weapon tightly.

Then…

WHOOOOSSSSSHHHHH! Something fiery and large shot overhead and, a few seconds later, a thundery sounding CRASH filled the air.

Shouting from outside came in and a second later, the door to the pub burst open and the officer, who had greeted Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy and her friends earlier on, ran in, a panicked look on his face.

"C'mon, everyone!" he said. "C'mon, we have to go!"

"What's goin' on," the man of the couple lying near the soldiers asked, sitting up.

"Another meteorite has just crashed outside the village," the officer said. "Well, c'mon, hurry up! We have to go!"

At once, there was a rush as everyone went to pack their belongings. The soldiers picked up the machine gun and carried it outside. The couple followed close behind. The man, who Mr Perkins had helped earlier on, ran over to the bar, a suitcase in his hand, and grabbed his radio with his other hand and ran out after them.

Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy quickly grabbed their things and ran outside. The fairies followed with Mr Twitches holding Cheese in his mouth. They ran over to the car and climbed in, the Humans throwing the things into the back of the car. Mr Perkins started the car, the engine spluttering and the gunshot sounding backfiring filling the air. He reversed the vehicle off the pavement and drove down the road as quickly as he could. A few other cars were ahead and a few more followed them. Panicked fleeing people ran along the pavements further into the village.

As they drove on, Lizzy and the fairies watched as soldiers ran up the way they had just come. The doubt of them winning or even surviving the coming battle filled their minds. There was very little chance the soldiers would win. Their weapons were inferior compared to the Martians.

Sighing, the group sat down in the car, thinking of where they were to go next now that they were on the move.


	10. Realisation on Neverland

**Meanwhile, on Neverland Island **

Neverland, a magical place and homeland to the fairies of Pixie Hollow. This was where they all lived and where each of the season fairies returned to when their part in the work on the Mainland was over. Filled with lush greenery, trees and with a never ending blue sky, it was an amazing place. The mood here was also amazing as well as it never seemed to be sad or angry, it just always remained happy.

However, that had changed. For the first time in centuries, the mood on Pixie Hollow had turned into confusion and worry. When the fairies had left to begin work on summer on the Mainland, they believed it would be another happy time, but now, all of a sudden, they were returning en masse, having been called back by Queen Clarion, the queen of the fairies and of Pixie Hollow. Though they expected her to know fully what was going on, even she was confused. All she had heard from the first groups was that large rocks had crashed nearby and when the Humans, along with some fairies who had hidden in any nearby bushes or trees, had gone to investigate, they were turned to fire and large machine controlled by creatures they had never seen before were rising up from these enormous rocks and attacking Human settlements and destroying the nature and everything the fairies had worked on. So far, none had been killed and when Queen Clarion had heard of this news, she had sent out messengers to tell all of the fairies to return immediately to Neverland.

In the Pixie Hall gathering chamber, a large spherical structure made out of a kind of glowing golden metal with a mushroom as a kind of platform placed about half-way above the floor on the wall opposite the main entrance and the whole place being lit up firefly lights along the walls, a large number of fairies had gathered. Most of them had returned from the fairy camps on the Mainland and the room was filled with talking and chatting amongst them as they told each other what was going on.

"We only just escaped from one of these giant monster things!" a male fairy with black hair and green eyes said.

"I've heard that the Humans are being driven back everywhere," a girl fairy with short red hair and blue eyes told her friends.

"What are these things?"

"Could they be something from Neverland?"

"No, they can't be, I've never seen anything like them before and I've been across much of the island,"

"Attention, everyone," a well-known voice erupted from the entrance to the hall and everyone in the hall looked to see their queen enter the hall.

She was a tall fairy with dirty blonde hair tied in a kind of bun at the top of her head with blue eyes and was deemed by many to be a very beautiful fairy. She was wearing her gold dress and behind her trailed a pair of huge wings, the largest so far seen in Pixie Hollow, or even Neverland. On her head was a crown to signify her position as queen. She was a kind and approachable fairy and very forgiving, but she could be firm when she had to be. However, now she was facing a great crisis. With the Mainland at war with creatures never before seen by the fairies or even the Humans, and the destruction brought by them threatening everything the fairies had worked on, she had to bring everyone back to Pixie Hollow for where they would be safe.

As soon as she entered, the hall went quiet as if someone had turned off the sound and queen Clarion hovered up to the platform and turned to face the audience below her.

"Fairies of Pixie Hollow," she said. "As you know, I have called you all back from the Mainland in perhaps the greatest crisis facing the Mainland and everything we have worked on. These creatures that have landed across the Mainland have been destroying and murdering the Humans and their homes at will," several gasps came from the audience below, mainly from those who had not gone to the Mainland. "We have been particularly lucky not to have suffered any deaths or major injuries, but I fear this will come at the consequence that this summer will be the very last time any of us can go to the Mainland to bring about the seasons,"

Upon finishing the last sentence, muttering broke out among the audience again. What! This…this could be the last time they would go to the Mainland! It was a horrible thought to the fairies. They had been doing this work ever since the first days of them being on Neverland and now, all of a sudden, they were going to have to abandon it! It was terrible, very terrible.

Queen Clarion felt the same way as the fairies below her. Ever since she had been made queen centuries ago, she had always felt it her duty to make sure the community of Pixie Hollow was ready for the seasons on the Mainland and up until now, it had been going fine. But…but now…now she and the fairies and the Humans were facing a crisis that they had never ever expected. The Humans were at war with another species, though the fairies did not know where it came from, that was destroying the nature and the Human population on the Mainland, and what scared queen Clarion and everyone else in Pixie Hollow was the question; would they be able to return when it was over? Even though she kept asking herself that question, she came up with the same answer every time. No, it would not be. These things had destroyed much of nature already on the Mainland and it was unlikely they were going to allow anything like the fairies to come back and rebuild it. They would probably end up being destroyed as well. It was just too dangerous to send anyone back right now, and it would be too dangerous to send anyone back ever again.

Down in the audience, another fairy entered the hall, a worried look on her face. She was a short plump fairy with brown hair, amber eyes and was wearing a green coloured dress. Her name was Fairy Mary. She was head of the tinker fairies and was strict in her role in Pixie Hollow. However, when she had heard of what was happening on the Mainland, she became worried for everyone to return safely. So far everyone had, apart from…

"Excuse me?" she asked a male fairy with blonde hair and brown eyes. "Have you seen Tinkerbell or any of her friends?" she asked.

"No, Fairy Mary, sorry," he replied.

"Oh!" she moaned worryingly and flew over to another fairy she knew had been on Tinkerbell and her friends' group sent to the Mainland.

"Excuse me, do you know where Tinkerbell or her friends are?" she asked the fairy hopefully.

He shook his head. "No, sorry, Fairy Mary,"

"Fairy Mary?" a voice from above asked and everyone in the audience turned to look at her. Fairy Mary looked up and saw queen Clarion hovering down towards her. "What is it?" she asked the head of the tinker fairies.

"It's Tinkerbell and her friends, queen Clarion," she replied. "I haven't seen them. I've asked two people who were part of their fairy camp group and they say they haven't seen her or Silvermist or Iridessa or Fawn or Terence or anyone,"

Murmuring broke out in the hall once again and no doubt there were some suggesting the worst case scenario for the group.

"Could anyone who last saw Tinkerbell and/or her friends please stand up," queen Clarion ordered.

Four fairies stood up, three women and one man.

"We saw them over at the Human's house last time I saw them," one of the girl fairies said. "The storm came in and afterwards we were told to leave, but we thought they had returned,"

"Did anyone tell you that they had returned from visiting the Human's house?" queen Clarion asked them.

"No, we just thought they had," the man fairy replied.

"And Vidia's with them," another of the girl fairies piped up. "We saw Tinkerbell and the Human girl take her in when she got caught out in the storm,"

"And you definitely did not see them on the doves back here?" queen Clarion asked them again, just to make sure.

"Definitely," the man fairy said.

"So if they're not here," Fairy Mary said. "Then…" she trailed off, her mind coming to the worse possible scenario. Queen Clarion's mind and everyone else's was also coming to the same result as Fairy Mary.

Tinkerbell and her friends were on the Mainland.


	11. Joining the convoy

**The next day**

**Several miles from St Angle village**

A new day had dawned for Great Britain and it was the second day of the invasion by the Martians. Overnight, more meteorites had landed up and down the four main countries in the British Isles. So far the main attacks by the Martians had been focused mostly in the countryside near some of the major cities such as Bristol, Dublin, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff. Many had already been killed by the Martians and the British Army was helpless to try and stop them. Though some of the tripods that had landed had been destroyed, it was just their technology that seemed to overpower the British army, which was not helped by the flow of refugees clogging up the roads and slowing down the advancing soldiers.

Many villages had already been abandoned by the population as the Martians advanced and had fled to the nearby ports and beaches to be evacuated from Britain and Ireland to the mainland continent of Europe. At the moment, this was proving to be useful in getting the people off the islands but it was also a bad position. The transports were slow and had almost no weapons to defend themselves, the only weapons in fact being soldiers with guns. Warships had to be used to hover off shore to fire on any approaching Martians, but this too could only do very little to stop the Martian advance.

With the arrival of more Martian cylinders, the ranks of the invaders seemed to swell and they seemed to press on without mercy. It seemed that Great Britain would need a miracle to save it from this peril.

On a small road leading in the direction of St Angel village, Martin and the soldier walked towards the village. They had stopped for a sleep late last night and had woken up early to try and get to St Angel, where the soldier believed the army would still be so he decided to stay with Martin. They had not spoken much during the journey and had met virtually no one, no people or, thankfully, no Martians, yet.

"How far are from St Angel?" the soldier asked Martin.

"We shouldn't be too far," he replied. "Another few miles. If we keep moving at this rate, we might make it there by midday,"

"Right,"

On and on they walked. They passed by several burning forests and farmhouses, all having been destroyed by the Martian death rays on their tripods. At one point, they had to climb over an uprooted tree that was blocking the road. Still though, no one had come into their sights. It was as if they were the only people left in the entire country.

Then, as they walked down another part of the road that ran through the middle of a small forest, which had several smaller roads leading off into the trees, the soldier suddenly stopped. He held out an arm, stopping Martin dead in his tracks.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I just heard something," the soldier replied. He pointed down one of the side roads that led into a thick part of the forest. "It came from there,"

Martin listened carefully to try and hear the noise for himself. Sure enough, he could hear it. It was a humming-like sound. Fear instantly gripped him as if he had been grabbed by a giant hand. What if that was one of the tripods. If it was, they were going to have to hide quickly or they were as good as dead.

"Quick, in there!" the soldier whispered, pulling Martin over to a thick line of bushes near the side of the road.

They dived into it and looked out through the small hole they had made. Martin took out his revolver pistol and held it close. The humming drew closer and closer. The soldier and Martin tensed and readied themselves in case they had to run.

Then, a large shape came onto the road, but instead of it being a Martian tripod, it was actually a convoy of trucks. A few civilian cars were in the convoy as well. The trucks were filled with civilians and soldiers. They must have just escaped from somewhere or the soldiers might have run into the civilians and decided to help take them out of the area.

The soldier breathed a relieved sigh. "Thank God It's jus' a convoy," he said and they ran out of the bushes and into the road as the last of the trucks passed. "Hey, stop," he shouted, waving his arms in the air.

The first of the trucks came to a halt and the other cars one-by-one in the convoy slowed to a halt behind it. An officer climbed out of the lead truck and ran down the road towards them, a few soldiers and civilians in the vehicles not at the back looking down the road to see why they had stopped.

"Oi, wha's goin; on?" a man asked as he got out of his car.

"I think we found someone," another man answered.

The officer reached Martin and the soldier. "Bloody good luck ya were found," he said.

"Yeah," the soldier replied. "Thanks for stopping,"

"Where 'ave ya two come from?" the officer asked them.

"We found each other last night," Martin replied. "We were both heading towards St Angel. My daughter is there,"

"Well, ya won't be able to go to St Angle, sir," the officer told Martin, whose eyes went wide.

"Why?" Martin asked worryingly.

"Las' night, it got attacked. Another meteorite landed outside the village and the tripods innit burned down the entire village,"

Martin gasped. What! No, no his daughter was there and if the Martians had burned down the village, then she and her friends and Mr and Mrs Perkins…they were…

"Please tell me the people got out!" he begged. "Please, did they escape?"

Thankfully, to Martin's relief, the officer nodded. "Yes, sir," he said. "The people got out literally minutes before the meteorite opened up and the tripods came out,"

Martin breathed a sigh of relief. Oh thank God his daughter and her friends and Mr and Mrs Perkins were safe. Maybe they were not in St Angel where he would meet them, but at least they were still alive, but where were going to now that the village where he had intended to meet them was gone?

"Where have they gone then, the people from St Angel?" he asked the officer.

"They've fled south with an army unit to London," the officer told him. "And that's where we're 'eading. C'mon, 'op in," he added.

"Cheers," the soldier said and he and Martin ran over to the last truck in the convoy and climbed in, a soldier on board giving them help and they sat down on the seats along the wall. The back of the truck was filed with other civilians and soldiers, some injured. One woman sitting near them was cradling a small baby that was sleeping her arms. The officer ran back to the first truck and within a few seconds, the convoy was rolling forward again.

A sense of relief and happiness began to fill Martin. He was finally going to be reunited with his daughter and her friends then they could find his wife. The situation was finally starting to look up a little for him.


	12. Chaos on the river

**One hour later**

**River Harold, northern outskirts of London**

The river Harold was a young river compared to others in the country, especially It's larger neighbour the Thames to the south. Running for about seventy miles from the coast to a large lake to the northwest of London and being about ninety feet wide for most of It's length, the widest point was about one hundred and twenty feet, it had been formed by labour workers in the middle of the eighteenth century to help trade ships get to villages and towns themselves rather than having to go into the Thames and be offloaded and then horse drawn to the villages and towns. However, as the twentieth century began to creep closer to Great Britain, faster transportation on rails and cars and a larger working force had made this river no longer usable by trade ships. For about thirty years, it was left as it was until about twenty years ago when a stone bridge was built over the river to connect the side of the river facing away the north to the side that led to London. It was a quicker route of travel and was also near the peaceful villages and towns, one small town being placed along the left side of the river, and a natural area outside the great city. Many families would come to have picnics and bring their pets here to play with and lovers to have walks. It was a place of happiness.

However, instead of being filled with happiness, it was now filled with fear and that fear was coming from the many refugees that had filled the bridge, having fled from the interior and coastal towns and villages to the north of London. The roads leading to the bridge from the surrounding forests and fields were packed with people hoping to escape to the city where they thought they would be safe, but the amount of people had formed a large crowd on the right side of the river, and it had only been swelled by the arrival of a large group of people fleeing from St Angel village. Along the London side of the river, a wall of sandbags had been prepared and several large artillery guns and mortar emplacements had been placed to defend the bridge in case any Martians came across the area. So far none had, but the British army here was not taking any chances.

In the crowd, three people tried to work their way towards the bridge that led over to the other side. It was Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy. Mr and Mrs Perkins were holding the suitcases whilst Lizzy was holding Mr Twitches. She had her coat on so the fairies and Cheese could sit in it without getting lost in the crowd.

It had been rough getting here. When they left St Angel earlier last night, or very early this morning when it was still dark, it had been fine but earlier on, they, along with everyone else in cars, had to abandon their cars because the roads were clogged with refugees and army horse carriages and also because the army knew that if cars tried to go across the bridge, it would clog it up and slow down the movement of civilians to the safety of London and make it a death trap if the Martians came across it. At the moment, the army was allowing people to pass over the bridge and so far it was going calmly but they had soldiers posted on the forest side of the bridge in case anything did happen. The crowd, however, had barely thinned. When one load of people had made it across to the London side, another refugee group would arrive to fill up the crowd. It was going to be a long process for the army, one that might take them the entire day, but at the moment everyone was okay. They were safe, but, again, for the moment.

Tinkerbell, who was sitting in Lizzy's left coat pocket with Terence, Iridessa and Silvermist, poked her head out just a little from underneath the flap and gazed around the huge crowd around her. Everyone was worried and was talking and in a hurry to get across the river. She watched as a young woman held her child of about nine tightly by the arm. A man walked by holding a suitcase. Nearby, she saw someone dressed in ragged clothes, which looked as though they had been torn, and covered in dirt, holding a basket filled with food.

"It's crazy out there," she said to the others, who had a look for themselves.

"Wow, you're not kidding!" Iridessa gasped, going wide-eyed.

"Those poor people," Terence said. "Can't believe I'm really seeing anything like this!"

"Same here," Tinkerbell said.

"I just hope this stops soon and these people and we can go home and back to our normal lives," Silvermist piped up, withdrawing from the flap and sitting down and bringing her knees up to her chest. "It's so horrible!"

"Hey, don't worry, Sil," Iridessa told her in a soft voice, hovering over to her and placing an arm round her to comfort her.

Tinkerbell sighed. She knew how Sil felt. She was feeling the same actually. This was a horrible thing to be witnessing, watching people having to leave their homes, but still not knowing if the way they were going was actually safe and if they would live through this. Although Tinkerbell was hoping that they and she and her friends would, she also knew that there was a strong chance they would not. These Martians were unstoppable and they were able to land anywhere and everywhere and cause panic and fear among the people near them.

"Are you okay, Tink?" Terence asked, resting a hand on her shoulder.

She looked at him sadly. "I wish I was," she replied, sitting down and resting her head against his shoulder, trying to hold back tears. "Why is this happening?" she said.

"I don't know, Tink," Terence replied and placing an arm around her to comfort her. "I don't know,"

Outside, Lizzy looked around at the crowd as she, Mr and Mrs Perkins approached the bridge. She was scared and felt helpless, like her fairy friends. She wished all of this would end, right now if it could, but wishing was not going to help her or even her friends even if they could. She had never believed this would happen, that she would be separated from her father like this or that she would be a refugee and having to flee from things that wanted to kill her. It was horrible to think about, let along believe it was actually happening.

"Stay close, Lizzy, dear," Mrs Perkins warned as the crowd suddenly became thicker with people.

Not too far ahead of them, a group of soldiers were keeping a few men that were trying to run and push their way across the bridge back. It was obvious they were drunk as they were shouting, which was barely noticeable over the noise of the crowd, and their words were slurred.

"Oi, c'mon! Let us through, ya berks!" one of the men shouted at the soldiers.

"Sir, stay back!" a soldier warned, pushing the man back with his rifle.

"Don't you push me or I'll drop yer!" the man growled, trying to push past the soldier again.

"Sir, I mean it! Keep back, or I will use force!" the soldier growled.

As Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy approached the bridge, they heard a nearby officer was ordering people calmly onto the bridge.

"Please move forward calmly onto the bridge," he was saying. "Please remain calm and walk across the bridge to the other side. That's it, everyone, please move calmly,"

_I'm glad his words are actually reaching people _Lizzy thought, unable to think of what would happen if this crowd was to suddenly break into a panic.

**Nearby, about thirty metres away**

Out of the trees came a convoy of military trucks and civilian cars that stopped near the edge of the river, lining up on the small grassland between the river and the forest just a few metres from the edge of the crowd. The officer in the first truck got out of the truck.

"Alright, c'mon, everyone out," he ordered.

One-by-one, the trucks and cars emptied. Martin and the soldier looked over at the crowd as they got out of their truck.

"Bloody 'ell!" the soldier said, aghast with the size of the crowd.

"I hope we all get across today," Martin said.

"Same here," the soldier replied.

Suddenly a noise erupted from down Martin's feet and he and the soldier looked to see a frog jump through the grass towards the river. Soon after, another frog followed, and then another and another and another.

"What the devil is going on?" Martin asked himself.

"There's more of 'em, look!" the soldier said, pointing up the grass behind and in front of them.

Martin looked and saw more frogs jumping through the grass in front of him up until just before the crowd and behind him as far as the eye could see. Some of the people that had arrived with him in the convoy also noticed this as well and were pointing down at them. What was going on? Why were they jumping towards the river?

Then, a flight of birds of all types flew overhead from the trees. Martin looked up and saw them. Unease began to fill them. Something was not right. All of the animals were coming out of the forest.

**On the bridge**

Finally, Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy had made it onto the bridge and had managed to force themselves into a space that went along the side of the bridge facing the convoy that had just arrived. Everyone was in a hurry to get to the other side and Lizzy was being pushed by people behind her and she struggled to stay with Mr and Mrs Perkins.

"Ofph!" she said as she was almost thrown to the bridge floor. "Oh, I don't like all this pushing," she said.

**On the river bank**

Martin looked over at the crowd once again, transfixed by the size of it. There were many people here and more kept coming. It was unlikely he or anyone else in the group was going to get across the bridge any time soon today. It might not be unti-

Then, his eyes rested on someone on the bridge. It was a little girl with a cream/grey-like coloured coat. She had brown hair and her face, though he could only see the side, was instantly recognizable. It… It was…

"Lizzy!" Martin breathed, excitement and hope filling him and before anyone could stop him, he ran towards the bridge. The soldier, who was surprised to see him run off all of a sudden, shouted after him but he did not hear him. Finally, he was going to be reunited with his daughter!

**On the bridge**

Whilst she was going, Fawn, who was in her right coat pocket with Clank, Bobble, Vidia and Rosetta, Cheese being kept in another larger pocket below theirs, looked out through the flap to see the top of the stone wall along the side of the bridge next to her and the view of the river and the houses. Wow! It was a great view. If only they were not on the run, it would have been a very peaceful moment.

Then, a chirping sound filled her ears and a second later, a small bird landed on the side of the bridge. It was a blue tit, a young one. It had a worried look on It's face and was looking around for It's parents, who it had lost as it had flown overhead.

Fawn immediately felt the urge to go out there and comfort the little bird, and that is exactly what she did.

"Fawn, come back!" Rosetta called.

The bird chirped around on the wall of the bridge nervously, frightened by the noise the Humans were making as they were attempting to get across the bridge quickly.

"Aww, don't worry, little guy," Fawn said calmly as she set down next to the bird, barely being noticed by the Humans walking directly behind her. "Are you okay? Have you lost your mom and dad?"

The bird chirped and pointed It's wing up at the flight of birds. Fawn nodded and rubbed the birds head.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll help you find them as soon as my friends are across the river," she said. Fawn then looked up at the birds. "By the way, why are you all flying away?" she asked the bird.

The bird chirped back and pointed at the trees with It's wing. Fawn gave the bird a confused look.

"What, what do you mean-" she said, but was cut off when a hand rested on her shoulder.

"Fawn!" a voice said and she turned to see Bobble standing there. "What are you doing?" he asked her.

"This bird just flew down and told me It's lost it's parents," Fawn replied.

"Guys!" a voice hissed at them and they looked to see Vidia looking out of Lizzy's coat, Lizzy now steadily moving further away. "Get back in here! Hurry or we'll lose you!"

Bobble said something in reply. Whilst he was doing this, the bird looked up at the trees and along to see if there were any other of It's kind it could fly with, just to keep it company until it found It's mother and father, or until they found her.

Suddenly, about three hundred feet down the river, the tops of the trees seemed to rustle wildly. Upon seeing this, panic gripped the bird, knowing what was coming and chirped at Fawn.

"What is it, little guy?" she asked, looking at the bird, who pointed at the rustling trees with It's wing. Fawn looked and at once a shocked and scared look came onto her face.

"Bobble?" she whispered, gripping his hand tightly.

"What is it?" he asked, only to see as soon as he turned and his eyes grew wide, so much so that they looked like they would burst out of the goggles' sockets. He gasped quietly and Fawn, a panicked look now on her face, placed a hand over her mouth.

The reason they were shocked and scared beyond belief…

Out of the trees came a machine, a tall machine. It's neon green bright eyes glowed brightly despite the sunlight, fixed on the bridge, It's tiny tentacles on the front of the main section of the machine waved around madly in mid-air and, though only just, Fawn, Bobble and bird could see the tiny cylinder sticking out of the side of the main section of the machine that was the heat ray, or the death ray. Even though they had never actually seen these creatures before, they had a feeling this was something that was helping them.

The legs of the enormous machine came out of the trees, one splashed down into the river, another drove deep into the ground. It's last leg uprooted a tree and brought it down with a loud BOOM! Upon hearing this, the entire crowd went silent as if the noise had been turned off and everyone looked down the river towards the machine.

Suddenly, the fog horn of the tripod filled the air, deafening many and the enormous machine began to move down the river towards the bridge.

Someone screamed and, at once like a wave sweeping onto the shore, all hell broke loose as everyone began running onto the bridge and those already on the bridge began to push and shove each other to get to the other side and into the town.

"C'mon!" Fawn shouted to Bobble over the noise of the screaming and shouting and they ran along the edge of the stone wall to try and find the others, the little bird following close behind.

At the back of the crowd, Martin and the soldier quickly found themselves in the midst of the pushing and shoving. Behind them, as the civilians that had been with them in the convoy joined the pushing and shoving crowd, the soldiers near the vehicles loaded their weapons. On the other side of the river, the soldiers in the gun emplacements began loading the enormous weapons, ready to fire on the tripod.

"Don't lose me, Martin!" the soldier shouted to him but before Martin could even reply, a group of people pushed past them and the soldier was pulled away into the crowd. Martin wanted to go after him, but his instinct told him to keep going across the bridge and find his daughter. Sighing in annoyance at himself, he pushed his way deeper into the crowd towards the bridge.

Further down the river, the soldiers at the vehicles fired on the tripod as it approached, but the bullets did nothing against the thick metal armour of the machine, though it did attract It's attention. The tripod halted where it was, drawing a lot of looks from the bridge and aimed It's ray down at the trucks. The soldiers went wide-eyed.

"RUN FOR IT!" the officer yelled.

Just as he finished yelling out his order, the lighthouse light came out of the end of the cylinder and a wave of fire shot out after it. The soldiers' screams filled the air as it collided with their skin and within milliseconds, they were incinerated into ash. One of the trucks caught fire and was knocked over on It's side as the tripod advanced, causing the flames to leap onto the other trucks and cars.

"C'mon, It's getting closer!" a man shouted near Martin, who looked and went wide-eyed to see the enormous machine coming towards them. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, as it did with everyone else, and he began to run and push harder, only to find himself being pushed and shoved by other people.

At the other end of the bridge, Fawn and Bobble and the bird reached the end of the bridge. They looked around desperately for Lizzy, but with the amount of people running and the noise ear deafening to them, they could not find her.

"What do we do?" Fawn cried.

We'll have to fly into the air and look down for them," Bobble shouted to her.

BANG! The noise threw them off the stone wall but, luckily, the bird grabbed Bobble, who grabbed Fawn and lifted them up into the air and flew away from the bridge. Where had that come from?

BANG! The noise came again, only this time it sounded closer. BANG! The three looked down the side of the river to see the guns firing one-by-one on the tripod. One of the shells struck the side of the tripod, tearing off a large piece of the side of the main section of the machine. It reared back, It's right leg dangling slightly as the shell had struck the connection that attached it to the machine. Another shell struck the back of the head and blew out an enormous chunk of it. The machine leaned forward slightly and hope began to fill the soldiers behind the guns.

"Quick, fire another one! We almost got it!" an officer exclaimed.

The soldiers nearby readily and willingly obeyed. They loaded another shell into the gun and with another great big BANG; the shell was fired at the tripod.

BOOM! The shell struck the main body section again. The right leg of the machine collapsed and fell off, landing with a great splash into the river below. The other half of the machine swayed as if it was struggling to stay upright.

"'Ey, look! They've got it!" a man on the town side on the river shouted, pointing at the machine. Most of the crowd stopped and looked at it. Nearby behind Fawn and Bobble, Lizzy stopped and watched with everyone else as the machine finally tumbled over into the river with another great splash.

A chorus of cheers filled the air. Martin looked over at the destroyed remains of the tripod and breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe, for the moment. Now he had to go and find his daughter quickly.

"Excuse me! Sorry, excuse me!" he said as he began to push through the crowd onto the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge, Fawn and Bobble flew out of the bird's grip and flew up into the air, their eyes searching the crowd for Lizzy, who they finally found near the end wall of the bridge. They flew down to her and she was relieved to see them.

"Oh, I'm so glad you two are okay!" she said. "I thought we had lost you in the crowd,"

They shook their heads and Vidia flew out of the pocket up to them.

"What's wrong with you two!" she said. "Why did you do that, Fawn? You could've gotten yourself killed!"

"I couldn't leave the bird, Vidia!" Fawn hissed back.

"Well-"

"Hey, c'mon, stop!" Bobble said, resting his hands on their shoulders. "We can argue later. Right now, let's get just go before we get attacked again,"

Vidia sighed and flew back into the pocket, pulling the flap down hard behind her. Lizzy gave them a worried look but said nothing. Fawn and Bobble flew down to the pocket and climbed in. Lizzy looked around for Mr and Mrs Perkins, who she found just a few metres from her, both of them looking around desperately for her. She ran over to them.

"Oh, Lizzy!" Mrs Perkins said, relieved as she hugged her. "WE thought we had lost you then," she said.

"Two of my fairy friends went missing," she replied. "I didn't want to leave them,"

"Well, we're glad you're okay," Mrs Perkins replied.

_Fawn_ looked out from under the pocket flap at the crowd around them. "That was a close call," she said. "Where's that bird?" she asked herself, scanning the sky.

Suddenly…

CRASH! Everyone looked over towards the other side of the river, just behind the crowd, and saw three trees be uprooted and thrown through the air into the river. A huge mechanical leg came out of the forest followed by a body. At once, the hope within the crowd was replaced with terror. It was another tripod.

Then, as if to worsen the situation, another few trees were pushed aside or uprooted and a second tripod came out of the forest near where the remains of the still burning trucks were. Close behind that one was a third.

"Oh my God!" a nearby man gasped.

The tripod bellowed It's fog horn into the air again and nearest the crowd aimed It's heat ray down at them, the lighthouse light shine down onto them and the wave of fire followed. The screams of the saying filled the air as tens of people were instantly vaporized into dust.

Once again, the crowd broke into a panic and everyone began to flee in all directions. Lizzy looked around for Mr and Mrs Perkins but found herself separated from them.

"Mrs Perkins!" Lizzy was shouting in panic. "Mrs Perkins, where OFPH!"

Suddenly, she was knocked off her feet and sent to the ground. At this happened, her pocket flaps came undone and the fairies and Cheese fell out onto the ground, directly in the path of the fleeing people. Lizzy dropped Mr Twitches as well, who screeched loudly as his tail was stepped upon and ran off into the crowd.

"FLY!" Tinkerbell yelled in panic.

The group separated, weaving in and out of the forest of moving legs, desperately trying to avoid being crushed, but very quickly they lost each other. Tinkerbell tried to fly upwards into the air but found it hard because of the amount of people running about to get away from the shore. She was almost even knocked over by someone running past her but her wings and quick thinking saved her from falling to the ground and being crushed.

Nearby the soldiers were rushing to load the artillery weapons.

"C'mon, hurry up!" the officer was shouting at them.

"Alright, It's ready sir," one of the soldiers on a gun nearby called.

However, just as the officer was about to order the guns to fire, one of the two tripods that had come out of the trees further down the river side aimed It's heat ray at the guns. The lighthouse light shined onto them and the flames came shooting out. One of the guns exploded, taking the group of soldiers next to it with it, and the heat ray moved both left and right along the side of the river, melting the guns and incinerating the soldiers that were unfortunate to get out of the way. The first tripod, which had moved into the river to the left of the bridge that had arrived aimed It's heat ray towards the bridge, not the crowd, but the actual bridge itself. The third tripod did the same, aiming at the stone pillars that held the bridge up.

Martin, who was on the bridge, looked at the tripod to the right of the bridge and gasped. A few other people had noticed this as well, but before any of them could shout out the warning.

The rays fired. The flames hit the stone pillars and the bricks seemed to melt into dust within milliseconds. No sooner than a second passed before the bridge suddenly collapsed, sending tens of screaming people into the river and leaving about forty more trapped on the Martian side of the river. Some jumped into the river to try and swim across, but found themselves caught in the struggle as everyone tried to swing to safety. Those that did not jump into the river, presumably because they could not swim, were quickly incinerated by the heat ray.

In the water, Martin, who had been thrown under the surface of the river, swam to the top, his head bursting out into the air and inhaling a deep breath. He looked around him and saw chaos everywhere. People were screaming and trying to stay afloat whilst trying to swim away from the tripods, the two of which had destroyed the bridge were advancing towards the mass of people in the river.

Martin swam away towards the river, but found it difficult. The amount of people and the moving legs of the Martian tripods were making the waves kick up into him, which was not helped by the amount of people that were struggling to swim or even stay afloat.

"Mate!" a man shouted to Martin from behind and he turned to see a brown haired man struggling to swim over to him. "Please…help me!" he gasped.

Martin looked at the man and at the tripod. He wanted to get away from the tripod, but this man here could barely swim. He could not leave him or he would drown, but if he helped him he would probably be killed as well. What was he to do?

"LOOK OUT!" a woman somewhere in the river screamed.

Suddenly, the man, as he was about to disappear under the surface, was lifted out of the water. Wrapped around his middle was a metallic tentacle that was coming out of the mass of them on the front of the main section of the tripod. The man was lifted kicking and screaming like a new-born towards the tripod. Martin watched in horror as the other tentacles on the tripod began to lash out at the water like cats swiping at fish it might see in a lake or river and bring out a person to take them to, no doubt, a horrible end. Gasping in horror, Martin began to swim away from the tripod towards the river side.

Back on the London side of the river, the fairies were separated in the crowd and were trying find each other, though it was not easy, even for Clank, Terence, Iridessa and Rosetta who had flown up above the crowd and were looking down at it to try and find their friends.

Iridessa cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted out: "Tinkerbell!" but received no reply, which would have been hard to hear. "Bobble! Vidia!"

The others copied her to try and see if they could hear anyone. "Bobble!" Clank shouted.

"Fawn! Sil!" Rosetta shouted.

"Tinkerbell! Lizzy!" Terence shouted as loud as he could.

It was hopeless, they could not hear their friends if they were shouting back to them, which they doubted. Iridessa looked around desperately, trying to find Lizzy or Mr and Mrs Perkins. If they could not hear the others, they would have to find the Humans and hope Tinkerbell, Vidia, Sil and the others were with them.

It was then, Iridessa's eyes rested on a young girl on a street corner, looking around worriedly. She was shouting into the crowd as well, but it was hard to hear her. Iridessa's eyes lit up with hope.

"Guys, c'mon," she said and she flew down towards Lizzy as fast as she could, Clank, Terence and Rosetta following close behind.

Lizzy looked up when heard jingling and saw them coming.

"Oh, thank goodness, I'm glad you're okay!" she cried happily.

"Where's Tink and the others?" Iridessa asked her, though it was jingling to Lizzy but she got the idea of what Iridessa was asking her.

"I don't know where the others are," Lizzy told her. " I hope they're okay,"

With another deafening blast from the fog horn, they looked over towards the tripods and watched as the dome on the back second tripod opened up and about six small silver capsules about the height of Lizzy speared in the dome. Many people around them who had heard the tripod emit the noise looked and watched as one of the capsules shot up into the air like a rocket. For a moment, it seemed to disappear into the sunlight. Then, it fell back down, landing with a crash in the street near the remains of the artillery positions, not even a dent in it.

"What in God's name is that?" a soldier asked.

Then, before anyone could reply, the capsule burst open and a black fog began to form above it and started moving down the street. Most of the people around it backed away, but one soldier did not. It was a bid mistake.

As the fog came near him, he inadvertently inhaled some of it. Suddenly, he felt like his lungs were being crushed and the air being choked out of him. He collapsed to the ground and the people around him watched in horror as he writhed about on the ground, coughing and spluttering desperately for air.

"H…H…HELP!" he coughed/screamed as he grabbed his throat and tried to breath, but ended up inhaling more of the black fog.

On the pavement nearby, Tinkerbell watched what was going on with wide-eyes, both filled with disbelief and horror. That fog…it was something horrible! Something unimaginable!

"RUN! IT'S GAS!" a man screamed.

Everyone screamed and began pushing and shoving each other even more as they hoped to get away from the black cloud that was spilling out of the capsule across the streets and into the alleyways and even going through closed windows and under the doors of houses.

Tinkerbell wanted to fly away as well, but where could she hide? The gas was spreading in all directions and was even rising into the air, and even if she could out rise the gas, one of the tripods might see her and fire on her, though she did mentally doubt this but she was still not prepared to take the risk. She looked around desperately for somewhere to hide, but where? The gas was getting into everything. She was trapped!

Then, she spotted a small hole in the side of the house behind her. It was big enough for a mouse to fit through. That was her way out! She would go through there and then find the others on the next street.

"TINKERBELL!" she heard a voice scream.

Tinkerbell shot round to see Fawn and Bobble fly out of the sea of legs towards her.

"I'm glad I found you," Fawn said to her. "Me and Bobble can't find anyone else!"

"We'll go through here," Tinkerbell replied, pointing at the hole. "And then try we'll and find a way onto the next street and find-"

She was cut off when they heard a squeaking coming from somewhere nearby. Fawn's eyes went wide.

"Cheese!" she exclaimed and looked around to see him running through the sea of legs towards them. He narrowly avoided behind stepped on by a man and jumped over the feet of a woman, who squealed and fell over.

Bobble looked over to the left and watched as the black fog began to move up the street towards them, engulfing two more people within it.

"Uh, guys!" he said, pointing down the street. Tinkerbell and Fawn looked and saw the coming threat.

"Cheese, c'mon!" Fawn urged him, panic in her voice.

The field mouse came to a halt as a group of people ran in front of him. He squeaked nervously, too scared to move. The three fairies looked back over at the black fog. It was only about sixty feet away, and closing fast. The panic within them began to turn to terror. They had get moving now or they were dead.

Finally, Cheese jumped through a quick gap that appeared in the forest of legs and ran over to the three. Quickly, they dived through the hole, one at a time, and fled further into the house, only just getting away from the gas cloud.

Meanwhile, whilst the terror on the river bank was escalating rapidly, Martin had tried to climb onto the river bank, but the movement of the Martian legs made it hard to as the water kept hitting home and pulling him back in and the heat ray had fired on a few soldiers who had carrying a mortar emplacement and a few shells, nearby. The shells had exploded and the force of the explosion threw Martin back into the river.

However, he had finally managed to pull himself out of the river. Exhausted but determined, he began to climb up the side of the river bank towards the road, hoping that someone would see him or that he would be able to run to a truck.

Suddenly, the sound of the heat ray being fired filled his ears and he turned his head to look down the river and saw one of the tripods fire on the few remaining people still struggling about in the river. The other two were beginning to fire on the buildings and people on the river bank, causing death and destruction with every burst of fire from their heat ray.

The tripod that had fired into the water must have hit something explosive from the first tripod that had been destroyed because a powerful explosion suddenly erupted and threw a wave of water down the river. The few people that had survived the heat ray were swept up into it. Rubble from the bridge was carried with it. Martin gasped and tried to climb up the side of the river bank, but he had barely any strength left. It was too much.

Then, the wave slammed into him, knocking him out instantly and carrying him down the river towards the North Sea.

In the streets of the town near the river bank, Lizzy and the others had finally found Mr and Mrs Perkins, who had Mr Twitches with them, in a nearby truck. Lizzy climbed in and collapsed onto one of the seats. Around her were other people who had only just escaped onto the truck. One of them, who was a middle aged man in his forties, was lying on the floor with an army doctor and two other man kneeling down beside him. The middle aged man was breathing raggedly as if he was struggling to.

"Is he gonna be alright?" one of the men asked.

"'E's lucky," the doctor replied. "Another second and he would'a been dead in that black fog,"

"C'mon, start the bloody truck already!" a soldier said as he ran past and climbed, or more likely jumped, into the front passenger seat.

The soldier driving the truck started the vehicle after several attempts. The engine hummed and he slammed his foot on the accelerator, causing the truck to shoot forward down the road. As it drove away from the chaotic river side, the fairies and Lizzy looked out and watched with sadness and defeat in their eyes as the tripods began to lay waste to the surrounding buildings, the screams of the people filling their ears.

"Wait!" Lizzy said all of a sudden. All of the fairies were gathered in front of her and she counted them. Her eyes widened. Looking around the others realised it as well.

"Where's Tinkerbell?" Lizzy asked.

"And Fawn?" Silvermist asked.

"And Bobble and what about Cheese?" Vidia asked.

"You don 't think…?" Rosetta asked, trailing off as they looked back down the street at the river, which was now barely visible under the black fog.

Further down the river, a man lay on the river bank, his clothes hair and skin soaking wet and his eyes closed. It was Martin. Miraculously, he had been carried down river by the wave and dumped on the river bank, but had he not survived nature?

On the road, a man with brown hair, small glasses and looked to be in his thirties and was dressed in black robes and black shoes with a necklace of the cross around his neck, gingerly approached the man. Looking down the river to make sure the Martians were not coming up this way, which they were not, he knelt down beside Martin's body and placed a finger on his pulse.

"Thank the Lord," the man said and he walked up to Martin's shoulders and placed his hands underneath them and began to drag Martin away from the river towards a waiting car on the road.


	13. Survivor's guilt

**Later that day**

"Ugh!"

In the remains of a house deep within a small village on the outskirts of London, a man awoke on a sofa. It was Martin. He had a small bandage placed on his forehead. Sitting up, groaning, he looked around the room. The front room he was in was mostly destroyed. The walls had either collapsed or were partly damaged, the ceiling had holes in it, with the rubble from it scattered across the floor, a large cabinet filled with fancy china lay smashed, along with the china, across the floor of the front room, a rug was burned in half, the scorch marks visible along the sides, and the remains of a table and chairs and a pot of plants were scattered everywhere. The curtains behind the windows were also ripped and torn.

"W-where…where am I?" Martin groaned.

"Relax, my child," a calm voice said and a man with brown hair, small glasses and looked to be in his thirties and was dressed in black robes and black shoes with a necklace of the cross around his neck, a priest, entered the room through a doorway on the left end of the wall the sofa was placed against. In his hand was a glass of water. He walked over to Martin's side and handed him the glass. "Drink," he said. "You've been out for some time,"

Martin drank the glass quickly in one gulp and drew for a deep breath when he withdrew the glass from his lips.

"Where am I?" he asked the man.

"You're just outside London," the priest replied. "It's nearly dark now,"

Martin coughed and touched the bandage on his head with his hand. "What happened?" he asked.

"I rescued you from the river," the priest told him.

"And where's the Godwinson Bridge and the town near it?"

"Gone! The Martians have begun an attack on London with It's streets jam packed with fleeing people! They have begun gassing the population and taking them! There is nothing that can stop them! They are unrelenting in their attacks and destroying and killing at will! Nowhere is safe!"

"But I have heard the sea was safe, where they were evacuating people to the mainland continent of Europe?"

"I am afraid not, my child. The Martians seemed to have made their machines masters of travelling underwater as well as over land. The _Thunder Child _was leaving the mainland with several hundred survivors and was attacked. It fired on the enemy machines and destroyed one, but alas, even the ship and It's guns were useless in trying to stop the Martians. Within the blink of an eye, the ship was blown to smithereens and all on board either perished or were taken by the tripods!"

Martin listened to all this with wide-eyes. He could not believe what he was hearing. Even the sea, which Great Britain had dominance over was but a graveyard for It's people and it's inventions! It looked…it looked like it was all over. It probably even _was_ over.

"And we are not alone in our struggle!" the priest continued, his voice turning into terror as he looked up through the hole above them at the sky, which was starting to turn dark.

"What?" Martin asked him, his head turning around so fast he heard it click. "What do you mean we are not alone?"

"Great Britain is but one country suffering under the Martian invasion," the priest answered, turning his head to look at Martin. "I have heard that all over the Earth, reports have flooded in that panic is gripping the country sides of France, Germany, Russia, America, India, Spain as green meteorites have been seen in the skies above them. Also, there have been sightings in Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, China, Brazil, Italy, southern and central Africa and many other lands across the world," he looked back up the sky, breathing heavily and his eyes turning wide behind his glasses. "It is all but over for us. God has made this year the time of our end. We have sinned greatly! We are but finished and God has decided to punish us for our sins!"

"Please, calm down!" Martin said urgently.

"But this is not all the Martians are doing. They are doing something else, something that is choking the very life out of the trees and turning the grass grey!"

"What?" Martin asked the priest, making him turn to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"Come, I shall show you," the priest said to him, helping Martin to his feet.

The priest led Martin out of the room and into a short corridor which looked as though it had been smashed apart by a giant. Huge holes were in the ceiling and floor, a flight of stairs behind them had been broken and smashed, part of the banister along the side dangling down, picture frames lay smashed on the floor and the front door into the house lay on the floor, broken in two. The priest led Martin outside and Martin gasped.

It was like he had entered a whole new world. The houses and shops and even the village church a few hundred feet away had been either completely or partially destroyed. Cars and horse carriages lay crushed or overturned, some burned to a crisp, no doubt having been done so by the Martian heat ray, several trees had been uprooted and lay in the road, the dirt, branches and leave scattered everywhere. Some buildings and other nearby trees were still burning, but there were two things that had really shocked Martin. One: the fact that the entire village had been abandoned, and two: what was on the few remaining trees around the village.

On a tree nearby, and on the grass and even the sides of some of the buildings and even cars and carriage remains, was a type of planet, but it was nothing like Martin had ever seen before. For a start, it was not green, but red, blood red. Secondly, it had no leaves at all, in fact it just looked like a weed, but what really caught Martin's, eye as the priest led him over to the nearby tree covered in the weed, was that it was growing. It was still growing, much faster than anything he had ever seen before. It was as if it was growing itself. It was stretching even across the road.

"This is not of God's creation!" the priest said. "This is what they have brought with them from their world!"

"B-but how?" Martin said. "How could this come from Mars, or even them? It…It's a dead planet, nothing can survive on it,"

"Well, we have been corrected, my child," the priest told him. "God has created other life in this universe and now because we have sinned, they have come to destroy us for our blasphemy!"

Martin shook his head slightly as he stepped towards the tree, not taking his eyes off the weed as it grew over it. The tree was completely bare of leaves, branches; even the colour of the bark had changed to a grey colour. It looked as if the very tree was dying, not shedding leaves like it would do in the winter and then grow them back in the spring, but actually dying!

Martin lifted his hand and grabbed a piece of the red weed and pulled it off, having to pull quite hard to do so. The red weed at once stopped and turned a grey colour, much like the colour for the tree. However, as Martin looked back up at the tree, he saw that the weed was still growing; having quickly replaced the part he had torn off.

"My goodness!" he whispered.

"We are defeated!" the priest said, getting onto his knees and placing his hands together and began to pray. "Oh, mighty Lord above, please forgive us for our sins and save us from these beasts!" he cried loudly. "I apologize to you for my and for the sins of our people!"

Martin was about to say something to the priest when….

_BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! _

He and the priest looked over to their right down a road. About fifty feet to their right down this road was a huge mound of earth. The remains of several houses were scattered up and down the sides of it. A bright light green light was coming from the other side of the mount of earth. That was where the booming noises were coming from.

Martin dropped the dead piece of red weed and ran down the road towards the mound of earth. The priest cried after him but Martin did not hear him. Something in his mind was telling him to go over there and see what was going on.

When Martin reached the mound of earth, he saw it carried on in both directions and then curved in away from him, forming a kind of outward shape size of a bowl. The noises from within the bowl were much louder. Martin began to climb up the side of the mound of earth to the top. The priest followed him up.

When Martin reached the top of the mound, his eyes widened more than ever before, so much so he was afraid they would pop out of his sockets.

Spread out for about half a mile in front of him was a huge kind of landing zone. A huge metallic structure shaped like four tentacles stretching out of the top of a sphere driven deep into the ground stood in the middle of the bowl, standing about eighty feet tall. Scattered around the ground around the structure were many half crescent moon shaped craft with large exhaust holes on the back. Three thin metallic legs descended from the bottom of each of the craft, holding it up. Several tripods were moving about in the landing zone and with them were many of the silver dragons that Martin recognized as the Martians.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed him and pulled him back towards the remains of a small upper floor house room a few metres below the edge of the mound. It was the priest.

"What are you doing?" Martin hissed as the priest, pushing his hand off him.

"I have seen what the creations in there are!" the priest told him. "They are craft they could use to fly. Though we have no air force capable of fighting them or even withstanding their might, it the air that have not been able to use against us, until now! When these craft become operational, hundreds more shall perish!" the priest's voice began to break again. "We must pray my son!" the priest cried. "We must pray!"

"You must calm down!" Martin told the priest. "Please, you'll bring them here!"

"Oh, Lord, above, spare us all from this apocalypse that is destroying our world you have created!" the priest cried, getting onto his knees and clasping his hands together tightly. "Please, we beg for forgiveness for our sins!"

"Calm down, man!" Martin half-shouted to the priest, seizing his arm, but the priest swung his hand and slapped Martin back to the ground.

"The Lord above wishes for us to pray for forgiveness! You should be praying with me for forgiveness, child! We have sinned and we are paying the price for doing so!"

The priest resumed praying madly. Martin lay on the ground, his eyes wide as he stared at the priest. He had gone mad! He was completely crazy! He had to calm his down or he would draw the Martians to th-

Suddenly, a growl made his eyes grow wider. He silently gasped and looked back up at the edge of the mound. That growl…it was from one of the Martians, and it sounded close! If it was close, then that could only mean they were coming up to investigate! What was he to do!

The priest was still crying and praying madly. Martin grabbed a small wooden beam and, crouched, moved towards him. He raised the wooden beam and swung it at the back of his head. The priest was hit and, with a groan, fell forwards onto the ground, out cold. Martin stared wide-eyed at the wooden beam and his hands and then at the priests' motionless body. He could not believe he had done that. Never before had he ever been so violent towards someone else, but…

A louder growl came from behind and Martin dropped the beam and ran towards the remains of the room. He frantically looked around the wooden floor and saw that part of it had risen up above a deep hole. A few fake tea cups, tea pots and a few blankets and soft toys were scattered around it. He dived to the hole and turned to look outside.

A second later, the body of a silver dragon rose up from behind the mound and ambled down the side of the mound on It's arms and legs. Three others followed close behind the first, each of them dripping dark green saliva and growling and grunting to one another as they saw the body of the priest and approached it. Martin watched as they reached the man, revealing that their size was only about 5ft 5, and one of them prodded him with It's hand. The other Martians grunted and growled at the first, probably speaking in their own language, and turned the man over. One of them grabbed him around the shoulders and dragged him towards the mound, no doubt towards his fate.

Martin looked down at the ground in front of him, a feeling of relief and guilt filling him. He had survived, but…but he had knocked out the priest and made him be captured by the Martians. It was hard accepting the fact that he had let someone else die for him and it was his fault it had happened, but then again the priest was going mad and if Martin had knocked him out and then dragged him over here, the Martians would have found them eventually because they had heard the priests' voice and they would have attacked them, or fled and alerted them to the tripods, who would have then burned them into ashes. Even so, he could just not get the guilt out of his mind.

"Survivors guilt," Martin muttered.

Suddenly, the last of the Martians turned It's head, It's black colourless eyes staring directly at him.

Martin gasped and moved back into the hole, though he was quickly stopped by the earth wall behind him, as the Martian, followed by another, ambled over towards the hole. As they approached, he saw the dark green saliva dripping off the sharp teeth of the creatures and the black, colourless and evil eyes looking into the hole. Then, the first Martian that had begun walking towards the hole and reached out It's arm, It's fingers open as if they were ready to grab something. Martin's wide eyes followed it into the hole and he tenses himself for a struggle.

Then, the hand of the Martian moved down and grabbed one of the soft toys, a small brown teddy bear with beads for eyes, and took it out of the hole. Martin watched as the Martian sniffed the toy and bit into it, though it made a retching like sound and spat out a mouthful of now dark green cotton and threw the teddy bear to the ground just in front of the hole, revealing a tear on the face where the Martian had bitten into. The Martian grunted at It's comrade, who was looking at a fake teapot it had picked up from the ground, and they, the second Martian throwing the fake teapot onto the floor, ambled away from the hole to the top of the mound and disappeared over the side.

Martin breathed a quiet sigh of relief. That had been a close call, but he had to be careful now. It was unlikely to be the last time he would get close to the Martians and next time, he might not be so lucky.

Quietly, he moved towards the hole's entrance and stuck his head out, looked around to make sure there were no other Martians nearby, and pulled himself out of the hole and ran down the side of the mound and disappeared back into the village.

**Note: The _Thunder Child _is a warship that belongs to H.G Wells. **


	14. Division in the group

**Meanwhile, somewhere in northern London**

The streets of the capitol of London could never look grimmer. Although little damage had been done to the buildings, it was obvious to tell just by looking around you in the street that the mood in the air was grim and filled with fear. Many cars and horse carriages lay abandoned in the street, several small piles of rubble were scatted about, a few gas lamps and trees laid about in the road, having been knocked over by the tripods, and everyone just seemed to be in fear and disbelief that their homes were gone, their families and lovers were gone, either dead or they had been separated, as many had been at the Godwinson Bridge, and the British army just seemed to have been defeated.

In one of the streets in a small residential area of London, a crowd of about two hundred people were walking towards the city. They were a mixture of civilians and soldiers. They had been using army trucks but reports had reached them earlier from a few new arrivals to the crowd that there were several Martian tripods roaming the city and they were looking for army convoys to halt and destroy and so the officers had decided it was best to move on foot. Even though they had less chance of reaching safer areas of the city by a certain time, they could at least hide from the Martians if they were to come across a tripod.

Among the group were Lizzy and Mr and Mrs Perkins. They had been on the move for a while now, as they had had to abandon their vehicles outside the main areas of the city, and everybody was getting tired. The remaining fairies were in her coat pockets, some asleep, others sitting quietly. Barely any of them had spoken to each other since earlier on, probably because they were all filled with worry over their missing friends. Although they did not believe it and kept it at the back of their minds, something in their heads was telling them the worst case scenario, which was that Tinkerbell, Bobble, Fawn and Cheese were dead. Hopefully, that had not happened but a lot of unexpected and horrible things had happened so far in this invasion and there was no reason for them to suddenly stop today.

"'Scuse me, sir," one of the soldiers asked an officer at the front of the crowd.

"What is it, Barnes?" the officer asked.

"Well, It's getting late and some of the civilians are asking where we're gonna sleep tonigh'. Don't ya think we should stop in this little housing area?"

The officer thought for a moment as they neared the end of the street, which led into an intersection. He mentally admitted it was getting late and in fact it was a good time to stop for sleep, but the question was; where were they to go? Out here in the street was not safe because if a Martian tripod came through this area and found them, they would all be killed, captured and/or separated in the panic. Even though the houses did provide some shelter, what if the Martians decided to level the city? If that happened, then they would all be trapped and burn to death. Both decisions led to almost certain death, but they could not hope to carry on as an alternative, again for the threat of the Martians but also because of tiredness in the crowd.

Finally, the officer came to a decision. He stopped, which made the rest of the crowd halt in their tracks, and turned to face them.

"Right, we're stopping in these houses for tonight," he announced. "We'll all get some rest and we'll post some of us to keep watch,"

"Are you sure that's a good idea going into someone else's home?" a man asked.

"You want to spend the night out here in the cold with tripods lurking about then?" the officer inquired and the man said nothing in reply. Even though it was against the law to do so, right now it was necessary for their own safety.

The crowd began to disperse into the large grey bricked apartment houses. The soldiers and some of the men tired the doors to see if they were unlocked, those that were not they kicked open, and they walked inside. Lizzy and Mr and Mrs Perkins walked up a flight of wooden stairs to the second floor, which had a few doors along It's sides with another flight of stairs at the end of the corridor. A few people had already taken some of the apartments so it was up to the next floor. When they reached that one, they walked to the end door along the left wall, near a door and a window that led outside onto the roof, and opened the unlocked door into a small room that had a bed, a table and a few chairs, a small bucket turned on It's side with a damp wooden floor, the water having been tipped out, and an overturned bedside cabinet with It's clothes scattered across the floor. An oil lamp lay on the table and a smaller door on the right wall of the room led to a toilet. A broken open window was placed on the wall opposite the door. It gave a view over part of the city.

"May be the best, but at the moment we can't really complain," Mr Perkins said, walking into the room and placing the suitcases on the bed. They heard people talking from below and from the corridor and a door crashed open further down towards the steps, indicating another room had been occupied.

Lizzy walked over to the window and looked out across part of the city. Although other houses blocked her view, she could just about see grey smoke clouds rising up from other buildings into the air, indicating that they were on fire and that the Martians were still in the city. She sighed sadly and walked over to the table and took off her coat.

"It's time to come out, fairies," she said sadly.

The flaps of the coat pockets opened and the fairies, one-by-one, came out of the pocket. All of them were quiet, even when Rosetta and Iridessa yawn and look as though the wanted to ask where they were, they did not. Lizzy sat down in the chair next to them and took up the oil lamp and turned the knob on the side to light it.

"Is she okay?" Clank asked.

"She's just upset, Clank," Silvermist replied. "It's her father. She's worried about him,"

"I wonder where he is," Iridessa said. "I hope he's okay,"

"Same with the others," Terence piped up quietly as he flew over to the window and looked out across the city. "I hope they're okay out there,"

He felt a hand rest on his shoulder and saw it was Rosetta's. "Oh, sugarcane, don't worry, they'll be fine. Tink and Fawn are strong and Bobble and Cheese can easily get themselves out of any mess. They'll be fine,"

Terence smiled a little. "Thanks, Rosetta," he said and gave her a small hug.

"That's alright," she told him as they released each other.

A sigh drew their attention and they looked to see Lizzy staring at the small flame in the oil lamp, the sadness and look of no hope clearly in her eyes. She was worried for her father and for Tinkerbell and Bobble and everyone else. She just wished all of this would end, that the Martians would leave Earth and Britain could go back to the way it was, they could go back to the way it was. Life had been happy before the invasion, but now with everyone in the country on the run and the Martians nearing victory and their family and friends separated…it…it just seemed…out of reach for all this to end. This time…it really was the end.

"D'you think we should cheer her up?" Terence asked.

"What can we say?" Vidia said in a low tone as she flew over to the windowsill and sat down on it. "She won't understand us for a start and we don't have Tink to help us. Plus, what's the point? We could all be separated soon,"

Terence sighed and shook his head slightly. Vidia was always like this, though not as much after last summer. It was annoying, maybe even a bit careless that she was saying this, but in a way, she was kind of right. What if tomorrow or even tonight, they were to be attacked again and all be separated, or worse? If that happened, there was an even greater chance that at least one of their group would die, and if that happened it would be unbearable for any of them. In fact, and they hated to admit it, that had probably happened to Tinkerbell or Fawn or Bobble or Cheese or Martin.

However, Rosetta next to Terence had her hands clenched into fists and her face began to grow red with anger.

"Alright, Vidia, what is your problem?" she half-shouted, drawing the looks of the other fairies. Vidia turned round, a little shocked by Rosetta's sudden outburst, but held her position, not backing away to show fear. "Why are you so negative? Do you even care about Tinkerbell or Fawn or Lizzy's dad?"

"I do care, sweetie!" she hissed back, flying up to Rosetta and staring angrily at her. "It's bad enough for all of us to lose someone!"

"Well you've been acting like you don't care!" Rosetta shouted at her, her jingling catching the attention of Lizzy and Mr and Mrs Perkins.

"Hey c'mon, stop!" Terence said, trying to calm them down.

"Stay out of this, Terence!" Vidia and Rosetta barked at him. Silvermist, Iridessa and Clank flew over.

"You are such a mean fairy, Vidia!" Rosetta growled, poking her in the chest. "No wonder you don't have any friends,"

"Says you, Miss self-obsessed!" Vidia sneered. "You get worried and act like It's the end of everything if you don't look good, not that you do anyway. Everyone thinks your annoying with the way you are,"

Rosetta snapped and grabbed Vidia's hair and pulled hard. Vidia yelled out in pain and hit Rosetta across the face, making her yell out. The two grabbed each other around the necks and began to push each other violently, their anger against each other suddenly exploding.

"What's going on?" Lizzy cried in panic. "Please stop!" she begged.

Either they did not hear her or they were ignoring her. Right now, Vidia and Rosetta wanted to hurt each other for what they had said to one another.

"Hey, stop!" Terence exclaimed. He grabbed Vidia around the waist and yanked her back from Rosetta, who was yanked away by Clank. Vidia and Rosetta struggled against the two holding them, angry at wanting to get at each other." C'mon, stop!" he exclaimed.

"Rosetta, please, calm down!" Iridessa said.

Their begging seemed to have finally gotten through to the two and they calmed down. Terence and Clank slowly let go, ready to grab them again if they tried to lunge at each other. Vidia pushed Terence off her and, glaring at Rosetta, flew out of the window, disappearing behind the edge of the roof.

"Are you okay now?" Silvermist asked Rosetta, who sighed.

"I'm okay," she replied, though her voice told the others she was obviously not.

"I'll go talk to Vidia," Terence said and he flew out of the window to the roof. Vidia was sitting further down the roof near the right corner, her legs brought up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them and her head resting on her knees. She was glaring out across the city and glared at Terence when she heard him coming towards her.

"Go away, Terence!" she snapped.

"No, Vidia," he replied. Her glare deepened.

"What?" she growled, her voice filled with anger.

"I said no," he repeated. "Now c'mon, Vidia. Something's wrong and I know there is because you would never say anything like that. What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong," she told him, looking back out ahead of her. "I'm just angry and annoyed,"

"Well yeah you are, but It's for a reason," he walked up to her and knelt down next to her and rested a hand on her shoulder, which shook off. "Vidia, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I told you, nothing is wrong!" she snapped. "Now leave me alone!"

He stared at her with uncertain eyes. She saw them and tried to ignore them, but it was impossible. She was admitting to herself, something _was _wrong, but she just did not want to admit it.

Finally, she could no longer conceal it within herself and she buried her face in her hands and began to cry. Terence soothingly placed an arm around her.

"Oh, I'm…I'm sorry, Terence!" she sobbed. "I…I just….just can't…deal with this anymore," she raised her head from her hands tears running down her face. "I can't deal with the possibility…that Tinkerbell and Fawn and…and Bobble and Cheese are lying out there and dying!"

"Hey ssshh! It's okay, Vidia," Terence said softly as she rested her head against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Terence!" Vidia sobbed. "I…I can't deal with…a-all this…any…anymore! I just want this all to be over! And I want…to…go back to way life was before!"

"Don't we all, Vidia," Terence said to her. "We'll be okay. Don't worry, Vidia. We'll…we'll get through this,"

She looked up at him through her tear soaked eyes and smiled slightly. "You never seem to give up hope,"

"I've had a lot of practice with Fairy Gary and my talent,"

Vidia laughed a little, but it could not help her forget what had just happened. She looked out over the rooftops and watched as distant fires raged. In the far off distance, a bobbling head that moved from side to side moved among the buildings. It was one of the tripods, but, thankfully, it was moving away in the direction of the River Thames. Hopefully, it would be gone by tomorrow.

After a few moments, Vidia finally pulled herself together and sat up, wiping her eyes dry of her tears.

"Do you feel better?" Terence asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah," she replied. "Y'know, I just wish I could see Tinkerbell now. I want to tell her I'm sorry,"

"Sorry?" Terence repeated.

"Me and her had an argument over me not trusting Lizzy and her father and I told her she should stay here if she thought they were such good people," she explained. "What I meant in that, but I don't think she knew, was that she should stay and die here. I didn't think it would literally come true,"

Terence rested his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, look. None of knew this was going to happen. I'm sure even the council or the Humans in those…uh, observatory thingies didn't know, but It's happened and we just can't do anything about it,"

"Apart from trying to survive," Vidia muttered, but loud enough for Terence to hear.

He nodded. "Apart from trying to survive," he repeated.

Silence fell between them for a moment and they watched the dark night above them overtake the sky and, gradually, the stars appeared. The two looked up and saw the second star on the right shine. They smiled a little. It was the way to their home. Neverland. They felt the urge to go back up there, but…but they just could not. For some reason, they felt like they had to stay here because they would be abandoning their friends and leaving the Humans to their fate. Even though they did fear Humans, they felt pity for them because of all they had suffered so far, and it probably would be a long time before all of this was over.

After a few moments, Terence stood up. "We best get some sleep," he said.

Vidia nodded. "I'll be with you in a moment," she told him.

"Okay," he replied and he flew off the roof and through the window into the room below.

Vidia looked up at the stars and then in the direction of where the Godwinson Bridge had been, where they had all been together for the last time. She sighed.

"I'm sorry, Tinkerbell," she said as if her words would carry on the air to her friend, but who knew if they would fall on live ears?

After another moment, Vidia stood up and flew down to the window and into the room to get some sleep.


	15. Evasion

**Meanwhile, on the outskirts of northern London**

Under the rubble of the few houses that had been damaged and destroyed by the Martians in their advance into London, three other fairies and a mouse carefully picked their way over and underneath the remains of what had been the homes and workplaces of the Humans in this city. Now, however, they were just shells of their former selves, and what ruined shells they were. Some were burning; others were just half destroyed, having been damaged when the foot of a Martian tripod had crashed down onto it. The streets, like much of London, were filled with overturned and destroyed cars and horse carriages. A few gas lamps also littered the road and even in some parts of the cobbled road, there were holes, some caused by smashes from the legs of the Martian tripods, others caused by the tripods' heat rays. London really was turning into a warzone, though, for the moment, the buildings and much of what was left of the city was being spared from the destruction, though only time would tell whether the Martians would keep it that way or whether they would decide to level the city.

"Careful, Cheese,"

In the remains of a small shop, which had been destroyed when one of the legs of a Martian tripod crashed down through the roof, Fawn and Tinkerbell were helping Cheese climb over a few wooden beams which had been broken in several places, leaving splinters sticking out of the wooden beam. Cheese carefully picked his way across them, hoping that he would not get his paw stuck in one of them because if he did, it would not heal quickly and it would slow the group down. Although abandoning him would be beyond their minds, and it would something they would never do, they would start to consider it, even though they would regret doing so.

Finally, Cheese managed to jump across the last part of the wooden beam and climbed down onto the charred carpet of the shop. Whilst Fawn congratulated him, Tinkerbell turned to look towards a large hole in the window.

"Hey Bobble, is it clear?" she called.

"It's clear, Tinkerbell," his voice came back.

Bobble had gone ahead to check the streets and make sure that there were no Martians walking about. For now, there were not, but as he looked up and saw it was getting dark, he did think it was best not to risk their chances. The night was, no doubt, the worst time for a fairy because their bodies would light up a gold colour because of the pixie dust on them and in pitch blackness, if a Martian tripod saw them, they would have to leg it to safety or a nearby hiding spot quickly.

"We best hurry, girls, and mouse," he warned. "It's getting dark and It's best we're not out here at night,"

"Alright, we're coming," Fawn replied and a few seconds later, the two girls and the mouse came over to him. Tinkerbell looked out into the street, gazing at the houses and the destroyed vehicles and such scattered about in the streets.

"Where are we gonna stay for the night?" Fawn asked.

"Hang on," Tinkerbell told her, looking at the houses. Even though they were small, what they needed to be fully safe was a cellar. If they could find a house with one, they could spend the night down there and they would be safe, maybe not completely, but it would at least be better than staying on another floor that would no doubt be hit by a laser or a Martian tripod foot first if one did come searching in this area.

It was then Tinkerbell saw a small flight of stairs next to a tree lead down into the ground in front of a house. The top of a window was just visible on the wall next to the flight of stairs. No doubt that led to a cellar. Her eyes lit up.

"Alright, guys, I've found the place," she said to the others.

"Where?" Bobble and Fawn asked her in unison and Tinkerbell replied by pointing over to the house with the flight of stairs in front of the house on the other side of the street.

"The basement under that house over there," she said. "It's the perfect place,"

"Are you sure It's going to safe?" Bobble asked her uneasily.

"Not really," Tinkerbell told him. "But It's better than staying on another floor of anywhere else here. C'mon, we better get over there,"

She flew across the road, though keeping close to the ground, as going to high would probably attract the attention of any nearby Martian tripods, to the other side. Fawn and Bobble followed with Cheese scurrying along below them.

However, when they reached the tree, Fawn looked at the bottom of the tree and her eyes went wide. All over it was a kind of red vine that was quickly growing up the side of it at an incredible speed. She hovered over to it, not taking her eyes off the red vines. Never before had she seen something like this, or anything that grows so fast.

Behind her, Tinkerbell, Bobble and Cheese were looking down the flight of stairs towards the partially broken window at the bottom. A small hole was in the bottom left corner but what was on the other side was shielded by a small curtain.

"Tinkerbell, are you sure this is a good idea?" Bobble asked her.

"There's nowhere else that can be any safe, Bobble," she replied. "Plus, you said it yourself, we can stay out at night in case we draw the Martians to us and we do need to rest,"

Bobble sighed. "I just don't feel a hundred percent about this," he muttered.

"You don't have to be," Tinkerbell told him. She looked behind them. "Where's Fawn?" she asked.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

The two looked up at the sound of the scream and saw their friend hovering in front of a tree, though she looked like she was struggling to get away from it, but something was holding her in place. The two flew over to her, Cheese scurrying after them.

"What's wrong?" Bobble asked, but both he and Tinkerbell went wide-eyed when they saw the red weed growing up the side of the tree, already now stretching onto the branches like an all-conquering army taking over the world.

"Help me!" Fawn cried.

The two looked at her arm and saw the red weed growing up her arm and was wrapping itself around it. Tinkerbell and Bobble grabbed her and pulled as hard as they could to break her free of the vine, but this thing seemed to have incredible strength. They pulled harder, but it did not work.

"We can get you free," Bobble said as the weed began to grow up her elbow.

"Well do something!" Fawn cried in a panicked voice. "Try and split it or something!"

"Good idea!" Tinkerbell said. "Bobble, help me grab Cheese,"

"Got it,"

The two fairies flew down to the mouse and picked him up and, with all their strength, lifted him up into the air. It was hard because Cheese was heavy, but they managed to keep hold of him. Slowly, they lifted him up to the weed.

"Cheese, bite away at the vines," Tinkerbell said in a struggling voice.

Cheese began to knaw away at the vines. Gradually, the growth of the vines up Fawns' arms slowed to a halt, just stopping half-way up the upper part of her arm. Then, they snapped and the vines suddenly turned a ghostly grey colour and broke away from Fawn, falling to the ground below. Fawn flew away from the tree, helping Tinkerbell and Bobble set Cheese back onto the ground.

"Thank, guys," she said.

"Don't…mention it," Bobble groaned, rubbing his arms.

"What is this stuff?" Tinkerbell asked, picking up a piece of the red wine, which was about the size of her head.

"I've never seen anything like that before," Bobble said.

"Me neither," Fawn replied.

"Where d'you think It's coming from?" Tinkerbell asked as she ran her finger down the side of the weed, causing it to snap and break away even more into dust.

Just as she finished speaking, a loud fog horn blew away in the distance. The three fairies gasped and looked in the direction of the noise. Cheese squeaked nervously and hide behind them.

"My guess, the Martians," Tinkerbell said.

"And I doubt Rosetta or anyone else would know how to stop this," Fawn piped up.

Another fog horn sounded in the distance. "I think we better get inside," Bobble said.

"Good idea," Tinkerbell replied. "C'mon,"

The three flew over to the stairs, Cheese scurrying after them and picked him up and flew down to the windowsill, setting Cheese down on the edge. He jumped through the hole, which was just slightly bigger than he was and the fairies followed. They pushed aside the curtain.

The cellar was a large square shaped room with four wooden pillars placed in a square shape in the middle of the cellar. A flight of stairs descended down from the floor above to the cellar. Along the walls were boxes and cases filled with a variety of Human objects such as toys, books, old cutlery and china, Large inventions with two wheels called bicycles and piles of old clothes and shoes. A small old moth eaten chair was placed behind a small wooden beam wall built two of the wooden pillars. A moth eaten blanket was on the cushion, probably having been dumped there and forgotten about by the house owners. Across part of the floor was a small puddle of water. Dangling down from the wooden board ceiling above it was a pipe that had fallen out of place. Water was dripping out of it.

"Not really the Hollow," Tinkerbell said. "But It'll have to do,"

The three fairies flew into the cellar. Cheese jumped down onto a box and then onto the floor and scurried over to the puddle and began to lick up the water. The three fairies flew up to the pipe and held up their hands. The water dripped into them and they greedily drank the water, quenching their thirst that they had had for most of the day, and went back in for more.

"Oh, thank goodness we found this," Bobble breathed in a relieved sigh as he drank another drop of water.

"Yeah, I thought we would never find any after what happened on the river earlier on," Fawn replied.

After a few moments, they withdrew from the pipes, their thirst quenched. Tinkerbell flew over to the chair and sat down on the cushion of it.

"It's comfy," she said and she pulled the blanket over and laid down underneath it. "And It's warm,"

Fawn and Bobble flew over to the cushion and got underneath the blanket. "Wow, it is warm," Bobble said.

A squeaking noise from below drew the three over to the edge of the cushion and they saw Cheese was looking up at them. He tried to jump up the side of the chair and grab hold of it with his paws, but he fell down.

"Aww!" Fawn said. "C'mon, let's help him up here," and she, Tinkerbell and Bobble lifted him up onto the chair. Cheese scurried over to the blanket and got underneath it and curled into a ball, snuggling into the cushion, a small smile on his face. The others chuckled.

"You can tell he's happy!" Bobble said.

"Well, he's easily made happy," Tinkerbell replied.

Suddenly, she felt her stomach growl. It had been a while since she had last eaten, or any of them had eaten.

"I'm gonna go search the kitchen for any food," she said. "I'll be back in a few minutes,"

"Alright," Fawn and Bobble replied in unison as they walked over to Cheese and began to rub his nose, which he enjoyed.

Tinkerbell flew off up the stairs and through a small trapdoor that open just enough for her to squeeze through into a long corridor with the entrance to the house behind her, a flight of wooden stairs to her left that led upstairs and a small room at the end which led to a kitchen. Tinkerbell flew down the corridor, passing pictures of the family that owned the house, to a small rectangular shaped room at the end. A table and about four chairs were placed in the middle of the kitchen with a sink and a few cupboards along the left wall. A small packet of plain biscuits and a few pieces of bread were scattered across the sideboard on the top of the cupboard. Tinkerbell flew over to the sideboards and broke off a few pieces from one of the biscuits and, balancing them carefully one on top of the other, flew back into the corridor towards the trap door. When she reached it, she hovered to the floor, placed the pieces of biscuits on the floor, moved under the trapdoor and picked up the pile of biscuits.

_BOOM! _"AAAAAHHHH!"

The whole house seemed to shake violently. Tinkerbell was thrown onto the step below her, the bitsof biscuits falling around her and onto the steps below. Below her Fawn and Bobble were heard talking in response to the shaking. Squeaking followed.

"Tinkerbell!" Fawn's voice called up from below. "You okay?"

Tinkerbell groaned as she lifted her head up from the step floor. "I'm…okay," she said.

"Come down here, quick!" Bobble called.

Groaning, Tinkerbell got up and flew down to the cellar. Over by the window, she saw Bobble looking out of the window. Fawn was on the cushion, her hand placed on Cheese's nose to calm him as he was hiding underneath the blanket, shaking with fear over the sudden shaking of the house.

"Don't worry, Cheese," Fawn said calmly. "We'll be okay,"

Tinkerbell flew over to the window, setting down next to Bobble. "What is it?" she asked.

"Take a look," Bobble whispered to her, moving himself and part of the curtain aside. Tinkerbell looked out and gasped, her eyes going wide at the sight before her.

Standing above them on the street was a tripod. It was so close that Tinkerbell felt like it was a real creature, a real giant to her. In a way, it made her think of them to Humans' size compared to the Martian tripods. They were as much as a giant to them as Humans were a giant to the fairies, though the only Humans they had come across had not been trying to kill them.

"Oh my," Tinkerbell gasped, clasping her hand over her mouth.

"I hope it doesn't see us," Bobble said, looking out from behind the curtain at the tripod.

The two watched as the tripod lowered down slightly, though, thankfully, It's head was looking down towards the road. Two cylindrical vents were sticking out of the bottom and they hissed loudly, puffing out a maroon coloured cloud of some kind. One of the tentacles on the front of the enormous machine reached into the back of the main section through an opening just behind the dome. Tinkerbell and Bobble watched with a mixture of fear and curiousness. What was the tripod doing?

"Oi, lemme go, ya bastard!"

The two fairies watched as the tentacle re-emerged from the opening at the back of the main section, though this time it was holding a struggling man who looked to be in his twenties and was wearing soldier's uniform. The man grunted and struggled violently, but it was useless against the tripod. It's tentacles were built for such purposes and a Human was not going to do anything against it. The tentacle brought the man down onto the road, placing him out of view by the edge of the road. Another tentacle slowly hovered down towards the first.

"What's it doing?" Tinkerbell asked quietly as she lowered her hand from in front her mouth.

"I have no idea," Bobble replied, whispering.

Then, a kind of thick sharp needle, about the size of a pillow though only it was not going to be soft and comfortable like one, appeared out of the end of the second tentacle. Tinkerbell's and Bobble's eyes went wide as they watched the second tentacle suddenly strike down towards the road next to the first. As it did, a kind of tearing sound filled the air, followed in unison by a strangled breath. Tinkerbell gasped, clasping her hand over her mouth again.

Then, a red liquid began to flow up the now transparent second tentacle towards the tripod. Even though Tinkerbell and Bobble, who were watching this with complete shock and disbelief, could not see exactly what was going on, they knew very well what happening and what that red liquid was.

It was blood. Human blood.

Tinkerbell moved back from the window, breathing deeply in shock. "They're eating us!" she gasped quietly. "They're…eating us!" she repeated, though this time her voice was louder.

"Ssshh!" Bobble hissed at her as he threw his hand over her mouth. "Tinkerbell, you have to be quiet!"

She must have been overwhelmed with shock because she did not hear him and her voice began to go hysterical. Her eyes went wide and she appeared to be on the verge of breaking down.

"They're eating us! They're eating us!"

"Tinkerbell, be quiet!"

"They're eating us! They're eating us!"

"Tinkerbell, you've got to be quiet!" Fawn said, flying over to her.

Suddenly, a mechanical noise came from outside and Tinkerbell promptly went quiet. The three, along with Cheese, looked over towards the window. As they did, they saw the window side of the curtains glow a light neon green colour. Their eyes went wide. The tripod was looking in!

"Quick, get down!" Bobble hissed, pulling the two over towards the chair.

They flew over towards it and hid underneath the blanket, pulling it almost over them completely, but leaving a small gap big enough for them to look out. As they did, something big descended down from behind the curtain, the outline of it just visible behind the cloth draping. The fairies and Cheese looked at it with fear in their eyes. They watched as the front of the object seemed to open up and it moved forward into the cellar, pushing open the window and past the curtain cloth, giving the fairies and Cheese a clear view of the object.

The object was a large oval shape with two small triangle pieces sticking off the sides. A kind of glass ball had been placed in the object and lights turned on at the front of the triangle pieces. The entire object was attached to a kind of large thick wire that was completely silver, the object also the same colour, that went outside through the window and went into a curve that went up in a kind of diagonal manner like a serpent when it curves It's body. A soft humming/droning sound was emanating from the object. It was a kind of mechanical eye with what it was looking at reflecting off the front of the clear glass on the front.

"Oh no!" Fawn gasped, placing a hand over her mouth as her eyes went wide with fear.

"Quick, get down!" Bobble whispered, moving them under the blanket, pulling Cheese under with them. The eye moved forward into the cellar and looked around left and right, It's lights scanning everything in front of it.

As it approached the wooden wall, Bobble, who poked his head out slightly from under the blanket, saw it coming and went wide-eyed. There was no doubt that it would try and look underneath the blanket to see if there was anything there and if it saw them, then they were all dead.

"We have to move," Bobble whispered to Fawn, Tinkerbell and Cheese.

"Where?" Tinkerbell asked him.

Bobble crawled over to the side of the blanket and looked out from underneath it across the room towards the right wall. There were a few boxes filled with toys placed on an old plastic table. Perfect places to hide, but they had to be quick and careful if they were going to go over to them. If this thing saw them, they were dead.

"Over there," Bobble whispered, pointing over towards the boxes. Fawn, Tinkerbell and Cheese crawled over and looked.

"I don't think It's such a good idea," Fawn said.

"We don't have much of a choice Fawn," Tinkerbell told her. "If we stay here, that'll thing will see us and we'll be dead,"

Suddenly, Cheese let out a quiet, but panicked squeak and nudged Fawn on the side and nodded his head towards the side of the chair. The three looked and almost gasped as the eye moved up over the top of the wooden wall next to the chair, much like a kind of monster rising up over a treeline or a hill, and moved towards the chair, It's light shining on the blanket and the soft humming sound ringing in their ears. The eye turned to It's left slightly as it shined onto the blanket and moved forward towards the blanket, especially towards a small kind of bulge on the side of the blanket.

"Oh no!" Fawn breathed as the four retreated back under the blanket. "It's seen us!"

Tinkerbell's heart was racing like mad as if she was running a marathon. This thing had no doubt seen the bulge they had made in the blanket and was coming towards them to investigate. She looked around desperately for somewhere for them to hide but she knew it was hopeless. It was too late.

The eye moved in close towards the blanket, It's glass just now a few inches above the blanket. As it rose up to turn and look under the blanket, the surface of it hit the stairs. Teetering on the edge of one of the stairs was one of the pieces of biscuit Tinkerbell had collected. When the top of the mechanical eye scrapped it, the piece of biscuit fell down the stairs, tapping loudly.

All of a sudden, the eye turned and moved over towards the bottom of the stairs to investigate the noise. Tinkerbell looked out when she had heard the soft humming noise suddenly grow quieter, though it was still quite loud, and saw the eye looking down towards the bottom of the stairs. Her heart leapt with relief. Now was their chance!

"C'mon!" she whispered to Bobble, Fawn and Cheese.

"What about that thing?" Bobble asked her.

"It's distracted. Now quick!" Tinkerbell replied. "I'll go first and give the signal,"

Tinkerbell moved over to the edge of the blanket and looked out at the eye once more to make sure it was not looking at the chair. It was. She breathed in deeply, trying to conceal her nervousness, and darted out from under the blanket towards the boxes placed on the plastic table placed along the right wall. When she reached it, she hid behind the side of one of the boxes and poked her head out, looking towards the chair, though keeping one eye on the mechanical eye.

After a second, she moved her hand towards herself to say _"Okay, It's clear," _and Fawn and Bobble looked out at the boxes.

"Go on, Fawn," Bobble said to her.

"No, you go, Bobble," she replied. "I have to help Cheese,"

"No, look, I'll do that. You just get yourself to safety, lass," he insisted.

"No, Bobble-" Fawn began.

"Guys!" Tinkerbell whispered and the two looked over across the room at her. "C'mon, we don't have much time,"

"Fawn, go, I promise you, me and Cheese will be okay," Bobble said to her.

Fawn wanted to reply, but stopped when she saw the serious look on his face. She sighed.

"Okay, Bobble," she said.

"Don't worry, we'll be okay," he reassured her.

Fawn gave him a small smile and looked over towards the boxes, where Tinkerbell was looking at the mechanical eye. Fawn, taking one quick look at the mechanical eye, breathed in deeply and darted towards the table. Tinkerbell grabbed her when she was close and pulled her behind the side of the box. That was two down, just two more to go.

"Alright, c'mon, Bobble," Tinkerbell whispered to him.

He nodded and looked under the blanket at Cheese, who was crouched down, shaking a little in fear.

"C'mon, Cheese," he whispered. Cheese was reluctant to move at first, but Bobble reassured him they would be okay and, slowly, he came out from under the blanket.

"Okay, Cheese. We need to get you down onto the floor and we'll head over to the table and we'll pick you up and put you in one of the boxes with us," Bobble said to him.

Cheese nodded, giving a small squeak as well, but looked nervously over at the mechanical eye. Bobble did the same, thinking of what would happen if the mechanical eye suddenly turned around and saw them. There was no question of what would happen.

"Alright, get ready, Cheese," Bobble whispered, moving towards the edge of the chair, Cheese following next to him. When they reached the edge and looked down, they realised again how far down the floor was.

"Alright, Cheese, I'll try and lower you down," Bobble said, drawing a wide-eyed look from Cheese, but he did not squeak a reply or anything like that, Even though it was crazy, both by the height and the fact that Cheese was a heavy mouse, but it was better than trying to make him jump down.

Cautiously, Cheese moved to the edge of the cushion clamped his paws down tightly into it. Bobble grabbed his tail and stepped towards the edge of the cushion as Cheese began to slowly lower himself down towards the floor, griping the side of the chair tightly.

Then, as Cheese went to grab another part of the cushion with his front paw, he lost his grip on his back paws. He squeaked loudly and Bobble grabbed him tightly with one hand and grabbed the side of the cushion with the other. His other arm felt like it was slowly being pulled out if It's socket as Cheese was dangling about two feet, a few tens of metres to him, above the floor.

"Oh no!" Fawn mouthed, her eyes going wide and clasping her hands over her mouth.

Then, the mechanical eye turned and looked over towards the chair, the light shining on it. It began to move over towards the chair to investigate the squeaking noise it had heard. Bobble, just about, saw the approaching danger and his eyes went wide. If that thing saw him and Cheese, then they were all dead! His mind was racing! What was he to do now?

"Bobble! Wait there!" Tinkerbell said as she and Fawn went to fly over to them, but he shook his head madly. If they came over, the eye would see them and that would also mean certain death for them! Tinkerbell and Fawn watched with wide eyes. What were they to do?

"What do we do?" Fawn whispered to Tinkerbell.

Tinkerbell looked around for something to help them, but what would? They did not have anything on them to help bring Bobble and Cheese over to them. Oh, this was getting out of h-wait! Tinkerbell looked at the box next to her and an idea popped into her head. She dived into it and began riffling through what was inside. After a few seconds, she came out a holding a small plastic bead that had been part of an old doll's headband. She brought her arm back and threw the bead towards another of the boxes further down along the wall on the floor. The bead landed in an old plastic basket with a loud tapping sound.

At once, the Martian mechanical eye, just mere inches from the edge of the cushion, looked over towards the boxes placed on the floor along the right wall and moved over towards them. Bobble breathed a sigh of relief and Tinkerbell and Fawn flew over and grabbed Cheese around the front paws. With Bobble holding his tail, the three flew the mouse over to the plastic table and set him down. Cheese scurried off behind the box Tinkerbell had jumped into to find the bead, the three fairies following him.

"Thank you, you two," he said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Don't mention it," Fawn replied. "You okay Cheese?" she asked, rubbing the mouse's nose and he nodded and licked her hand, his way of saying thanks for saving him and Bobble.

Tinkerbell fluttered to the end of the box and poked her head out from behind it, looking at the mechanical eye, which was looking down into one of the boxes, It's light on the front of it shining down into the box to reveal what was inside. However, instead of looking at the one box, it was moving along toward the table looking at the other boxes. In a few moments, it would be looking on the box they were hiding behind.

Tinkerbell flew back to the others. "It's searching the boxes," she whispered. "It'll be here in a minute,"

"Then where do we go?" Bobble asked.

Tinkerbell looked around, trying to find somewhere for them to hide. The chair was not an option for it would be a certain death sentence if they tried to fly across the room to it carrying Cheese. The box was no good either because the eye was looking into them. Oh, where were they to go?

Then, a light came down onto the table. Tinkerbell's eyes went wide and she and the others threw themselves against the side of the box. A few inches above them was the mechanical eye and it was looking onto the box, looking through the items within it. Tinkerbell and Fawn looked at each other with wide-eyes, both mentally praying that they would not be spotted by the eye.

Bobble was looking ahead with his eyes as wide as dinner plates, shaking with fear. Then, he felt something grab his hand and he looked down to see Fawn with her hand in his, clutching it tightly. She too was shaking a little and she gave him a worried look. Bobble wanted to reassure her, but he did not know what would happen.

Then, after about ten to fifteen heart beating seconds, the mechanical eye began to move away from the box. Tinkerbell looked out from behind the box and watched it move off towards the other side of the room. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"We're safe," she said to the others, breathing a sigh of relief.

The others sighed in relief. "Thank the Hollow," Fawn said.

"Yes, that was a close call," Bobble replied.

It was then Tinkerbell noticed something about her. "Uh, guys…your hands,"

The two looked down at their hands, realising that they were still holding them, and quickly let go, blushing slightly.

"Sorry," Bobble said to Fawn.

"Same here," she replied. Tinkerbell smiled a little and looked out at the mechanical eye, which was looking down at another box filled with old toys and books.

As Bobble slipped down to the floor, he failed to notice Cheeses' tail on the table below him.

Cheese squeaked loudly in pain as Bobble sat on his tail. Bobble, Fawn and Tinkerbell jumped, falling over.

"Sorry, Cheese," Bobble said to him.

As Tinkerbell got up, she looked up at the eye and went wide-eyed.

"Guys, It's coming back!" she warned.

Their eyes went wide. Oh no, and because of Cheese's squeaking, it was sure to look behind the box to see what had made the noise. They were dead!

The mechanical eye came close to the box, rising up slightly as the lights on the front shined onto it, searching for whatever had made that squeaking noise. When it was just above the top of the box, it suddenly decided to move to the side and, shooting forward and turning, it looked down onto the table behind the box, the lights revealing it.

There was nothing there. It was empty. The mechanical eye looked up and down the table to see if whatever had made the noise was in the darkness, but saw nothing. Slowly, the eye retreated and moved back towards the window. When it reached it, the front of the eye closed and the lights turned off, the triangle pieces sliding back into the main round section. Slowly, the tentacle section of the eye rose up away from the window and disappeared from sight.

When it was gone, four figures rose up from underneath the plastic table. Three of them placed a mouse on the plastic table near the box.

"That was close," Tinkerbell said, placing her back against the side of the box.

"Yeah, it was," Fawn replied. "I thought we were goners then,"

"Let's just hope they go away now and we can get some sl-" Bobble was saying when…

_SMASH! _The four jumped and looked over toward the window to see a cloud of glass fly from it to the floor. Then, a group of large figures ambled into the cellar. The four went wide-eyed when they saw these creatures. They were silver dragons with scales that went along to the back of their heads like silver fire, dark green saliva was dripping from their mouths and they walked on both their legs and arms. Their black colourless eyes scanned the room as they entered it, taking in what was around them.

Tinkerbell backed away further behind the box. "Oh my," she said.

Fawn, Bobble and Cheese backed away behind the box as well, fear gripping them as the silver dragons began to amble into the room.

"Quick, into the box!" Tinkerbell said.

"Are you crazy, Tinkerbell?" Bobble replied.

"No, but I'm trying to save us from being killed, now c'mon!" she told him.

They jumped into the box and pulled Cheese in with them. Luckily, the Martians had been grunting and growling to one another so the noise was covered. The four began to try and bury themselves under the amount of stuff in the box, trying to be as quietly as possible so as not to alert the Martians to their presence. As they did, Tinkerbell looked up through a small hole in the wall of the box ahead of her and watched as one of the Martians walked over to the pipe with the water dripping down onto the floor. When it reached the pipe, It's arms and legs splashing into the pool of water, which drew the attention of the other Martians, it rose up on It's back legs and closed It's mouth around the pipe and began to drink the water dripping out of the pipe, gulping loudly as it drank. Another of the Martians came over and grunted at the one drinking the water, probably wanting him to move. The first Martian growled at the other and the second Martian backed away, a glare on It's face.

Then, another of the Martians walked over to the boxes and began to search through them. The first box it reached was the one the fairies and Cheese were hiding in. The box shook wildly as the Martian ran It's hand through it, pushing and tossing things in it about. Tinkerbell, who was hiding near the right end of the box underneath an old teddy bear, looked over towards Fawn, who was hiding under an old child's book on top of another book, looked back at her with wide, worry filled eyes and looked to be on the verge of tears. Bobble, who was hiding under another old teddy bear next to her, placed a hand over her mouth and silently urged her to remain calm.

Then, the book she was sitting on rose up as the sharp clawed hand of the Martian grabbed the side of it, just millimetres from Fawn's leg. Fawn slid down to the bottom of the box and Bobble grabbed her and pulled under the teddy bear he was hiding under and held her close to him. A few moments later, the Martian let go of the book, making it thud loudly as it hit the bottom of the box, and ambled off to the other side of the room to search the other boxes. Tinkerbell saw Fawn breathe a sigh of relief.

A crunching sound caught her attention and Tinkerbell looked through a small hole in the side of the box, a little further down from where she was, and saw one of the Martians on the bottom step of the stairs that led up to the trap door, holding itself up with one arm placed on the step, holding something in It's hand. It moved It's hand towards It's mouth and a loud crunch followed, which was then followed by the sound of the Martian's teeth clicking together. It was eating something. The Martin gave a satisfied grunt and moved up the steps and picked up another of whatever it was it was eating and ate that one as well. It was only when it was on the third thing it was eating that Tinkerbell saw what the Martian was trying and liking. It was the pieces of biscuits she had broken off in the kitchen.

_Too bad we can't give them to those guys to make them leave _she thought.

On the other side of the cellar, another of the Martians was investigating the bicycle that was placed against the wall with It's wheels facing towards the stairs. It spun the top wheel of the bicycle, fascinated by the clicking-like sound it was making when the wheel spun.

CLANK! The bicycle came undone from whatever it was that was holding it to the wall and fell towards the Martian, who moved out of the way. It growled and pushed the bicycle away from it and the bicycle fell to the floor with another clank. Another Martian a few feet down from that one was searching through a box and took out a picture of a young adult Human woman on it. The Martian looked at the photo and passed it to the Martian that had knocked the bicycle off the wall, who took it in It's clawed hands and looked over it with It's black colourless eyes. Another crunch came from the stairs and Tinkerbell looked to see the Martian there with the last piece of biscuit in It's hand. Even though the eyes of the creature were black and colourless, it was not hard to tell it was pleasured by this new food it was eating.

Suddenly, a blast of air from outside shook the cellar, making the boxes, the chair and even the stairs shake. It was the horn of the Martian tripod outside. At once, as soon as the noise stopped, the Martians began to amble over towards the window, the Martian on the stairs grabbing the last two pieces of biscuit first before following It's friends out. They ambled out of the cellar, climbed up the stairs and disappeared from sight.

After about ten seconds, Tinkerbell, cautiously, rose up from within the box and looked around to make sure the Martians were gone. They were.

"Okay, It's clear," she said to the others, who climbed out of the box onto the table.

"Boy, that was close," Bobble said, letting go of Fawn, who nodded in agreement.

"I'll just go check and see if the tripod's going," Tinkerbell said and she flew over to the now smashed open window and looked up into the street to see the tripod begin to lumber away, the footfalls of It's enormous metallic legs shaking the cellar with every step, but within a few minutes it had faded away.

"They're gone," Tinkerbell said, turning to the others.

"Good," Fawn said. "I think we all should all get some sleep,"

"Not a bad idea," Bobble said, stifling a yawn and floating down to Cheese, who was sitting on the edge of the table. "C'mon, Cheese, let's go to bed,"

He, Fawn and Tinkerbell carried the field mouse over to the chair, collapsing onto it when they reached it and crawled over to the back of the cushion, pulling the blanket over them. Cheese, Bobble and Fawn fell asleep instantly but Tinkerbell lay on her side, staring ahead at the side of the chair as if she was looking directly at the window. Would the Martians come back? She doubted it, but what if they did? They would not have a chance at escaping then. Tinkerbell was thinking of staying up to keep a look out, but her body was telling her that she needed rest.

Finally, she obeyed her body and let sleep overtake her.


	16. A familiar face

**The next day, somewhere in northern London**

Within the rubble strewn streets of London, a lone man walked, climbing over the remains of the fallen trees, gas lamps and overturned cars and the large pieces of rubble from the nearby buildings. It was Martin. His clothes were a little torn, the skin around his eyes was red and he had a bit of a cough. Not really in fit and healthy condition, but he had at least survived his encounter with the Martians. He had been rescued by a priest from the Godwinson Bridge, but the priest had gone mad and had drawn the Martians to them. Martin had to knock him out and then hide and had to watch the Martians take away the body of the priest to his fate. The guilt of that act still burned within him. He could not believe he had actually done something like that, but then again, he did not really have a choice. If he had left the man praying, the Martians would have been looking around for him as well, no doubt because the man would have probably screamed that Martin was with him, and even if Martin had knocked him out and tried to hide him in the hole, they would have been spotted for the hole was not big enough for the both of them and the Martians would have searched it anyway for they heard the priest's voice.

_Survivor's guilt _Martin thought again as he walked around a large hole in the road.

On and on he walked further into the city. He had been on the move since early this morning and he had narrowly avoided a run in with another tripod that was searching the area for any straggling Humans. He had hidden underneath a horse carriage and narrowly avoided one of the mechanical eyes from the tripod. Since then, he had been keeping close to the streets that were littered with rubble so he could hide behind or underneath it if another tripod came near him. So far, he had not seen another tripod and he was glad he had not and hoped it would stay there.

As he walked on, he passed a group of trees placed in a small grass clearing between two buildings. Like with all the trees he had seen so far, it was bare of leaves and branches, it was a ghostly grey colour and the red weed was spread up along the sides of it, overtaking it and turning into a real dead tree, one that would not come back to sprout leaves and be the homes of nature again as it had done many times before. Martin sighed upon seeing this. The Martian invasion was more than an invasion to destroy Humans, it was to destroy the very nature of Earth and replace it with that of their own. Even though it had been a few days, it looked as though it was the end of Great Britain and the world. He could only imagine what was going on in the other countries across the planet that the priest had mentioned just shortly before he had been taken by the Martians. The people of these countries were probably on the run, diminished in numbers and supplies and being taken by the Martians just like what was going on in Great Britain.

It was really was the end of the world, not entirely, but the Human world, an apocalypse that was predicted long before but no one took any notice of it. Now, they were probably wishing they had listened.

As Martin reached the end of the street, which was a turning that led right, a small thud from an alleyway that led left made him look. The alleyway was filled with old wooden boxes, clothes and such, in front of the few gates along the sides, which had been left behind by the people in their attempt to flee. His curiousness brought him to look into the alleyway and as he stepped towards it, he saw a figure at the end, searching through a large wooden box. His dark green-like coloured clothes looked ragged and torn and he had a bandage around the top of his head. In his hand was a long stick-like object, a cane.

"I best stay away," Martin muttered to himself, slowly and quietly moving away. However, his shoe hit a piece of glass from a fallen gas lamp and it cracked loudly. The man at the end grunted and looked up, staring with wild eyes directly at him.

"Oi! Bugger off! Go on! Scram!" the man barked, stomping down the alleyway towards Martin, raising his cane to threaten him.

"I-I'm s-sorry!" Martin stuttered backing off in fear.

"Ya want me food and water, don't ya!" the man barked at him. "Well, you ain't getting it! There's onl' enough fer one, not two, now bugger off before I-"

The man suddenly stopped as he emerged from the alleyway, revealing himself to be an army soldier. His eyes were red from lack of sleep, his face and hands were dirty, as was his clothes, and he had a small beard growing on his chin. Martin did not know it at first, but this was someone he had met before.

All of a sudden, the soldier laughed and a happy look came upon his face. "Martin!" he exclaimed.

Martin was puzzled. "H-how do you know my name?" he asked.

"Don't yer recognize me?" the soldier asked. "It's me! Your old friend ya met on the way to St Angel,"

Then, it hit Martin. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, that was lucky," he said, laughing a little. "I thought you had been killed,"

"Nah," the soldier told him. "I fell inta the river after the bridge was destroyed, bu' I escaped and now I've been 'iding in a small cellar in one o' these 'ouses. C'mon, I'll take you there. Ya look like ya could do with some rest,"

The soldier led Martin back into the alleyway to the end and kicked open one of the back gates, revealing a small garden which was covered almost completely in the red weed, which was spreading up the side of the building and onto the doors and windows. Next to the back door of the house at the other end of the garden was another door at the bottom of a small flight of stairs that led down into a kind of small rectangular hole. A tiny window was on the wall next to the door. The soldier and Martin walked across the red garden, causing splits in the layer of red weed as their feet went through it, but it quickly grew back, towards the door. They walked down to the steps and the soldier opened the door and they walked inside.

The cellar was a large square shaped room with a flight of stairs along the left wall leading up to a door placed on the left wall. A few old chairs were placed along the right wall with a blanket on one of them. A small wooden table was placed in the middle of the cellar with a bottle of whiskey with a few cups, a few loaves of bread and cheese and a small radio. However, what really caught Martin's attention was a half cylindrical tunnel that went down at a bit of a diagonal angle into the wall at the opposite end of the cellar that was layered with bricks. A small pile of dirt was at the end of the tunnel near the dirt wall. A shovel was driven into the pile of dirt.

"'Ere, I'll turn the radio on," the soldier said, walking over to the radio and began fiddling with it. A wave of static came out of the radio and the soldier swore under his breath and began hitting it as he tried fiddling with it again to try and make it work.

Martin, meanwhile, walked over to the tunnel and gazed at the walls as he looked around at it, much like he was re-enacting Tinkerbell's reaction when she has walked into the fairy house Lizzy had made last year. Why was there a small tunnel in the cellar of a house? Had the soldier made it, or was this already here before the invasion?

"Ah, finally!" the soldier said, standing up and pulling a chair over to the table as the radio crackled to life.

"_The-(static) British government has fled…the Martian invaders are spreading-(static)-across London. Thousands have fled into the city-(static)-red weed has taken over much of the countryside. For Great Britain, it is the end. The prime minister had declared that Britain must prevail for if Britain falls, then the rest of the world, which is reported to be under siege by smaller Martian invasion forces, will also fall-"_

The radio suddenly cut off and went quiet. The soldier sighed. "Well, so much for being a great country," he said as he poured himself a glass of whiskey. "Ya want some of this, Martin?" he asked.

"Oh!" Martin replied, turning to face him, drawing himself away from the tunnel. "Uh, no thank you," he said. He resumed looking into the tunnel and ran a hand across the brick wall. "Why is this here?" Martin asked the soldier.

"I made it," the soldier answered, getting up, holding his half empty glass in his hand, and walking over and gazing into it. "Well…part of it," he added. "I can up with an' idea no' long after I go' inta London,"

"What's that?" Martin asked him.

"Us…not you and me…but, Britain…all of us startin' again," the soldier answered.

"Starting again?"

The soldier nodded. "Yup! Think of it; they've probably done the same thin' on their 'ome world. When it died on the surface, they fled undergroun' an' started again. Well, if they can do it, so can we,"

Martin looked at the back wall of the tunnel. It was a crazy idea, but then again, the soldier was right. If the Martians could do it, then so could Humanity. A faint idea began to form in his head of underground communities with parks, shops, maybe even small rivers and fields and farms. Was it possible?

"Think of it," the soldier said. "We'll build a new capita' underneath the Martians an' learn how ta build technology like theirs and one day, we'll surprise 'em and take back Britain from 'em and rebuild. Oh, it sounds crazy, bu' I think It's possible,"

Martin could not help but partly agree with him. It was crazy, but then again Humanity had learned to adapt and survive against past disasters and enemies. What if they could do the same here against the Martians? What if one day, Britain did begin a new war against the Martians, and would they use Martian technology against them? It all sounded crazy and the thoughts of a mad man, but right now Martin was probably acting crazy and acting a mad man.

"Did yer find ya daughter?" the soldier asked after a few moments, snapping Martin back into reality.

"Oh, uh…no," he replied sadly. "Last time I saw her was at the Godwinson Bridge with an elderly couple I know and her fairy friends. I-"

"Wait, did you jus' say; fairy friends?" the soldier asked.

"Yes," Martin replied. The soldier chuckled. "What?" Martin asked him, though he knew what the soldier was thinking.

"Are ya sure ya ain't crazy, Martin?" the soldier asked. "I mean, fairy friends?" he chuckled again and drank the rest of his whiskey and swallowed hard and breathed out a relieved sigh. "I mean, fairies don't exist,"

"Actually, they do," Martin replied. "I used to think they didn't until last year when I saw a group of them that have returned this year to see me and my daughter again,"

The soldier chuckled again. "I dunno what ta say, Martin, but I do think It's crazy you thinkin' fairy are real," he said.

"Well, you'll know they're real soon," Martin told him.

"I'm sure I will," the soldier replied sarcastically, walking over to the chair and sitting down again and pouring himself another glass.

Martin looked sadly down at the ground as the thought of his daughter, Mr and Mrs Perkins, his wife, if she was still alive, and Lizzy's fairy friends. He missed them all. He was wishing they were okay and he wished that soon he would be able to hold them again. He wiped away a small tear from his eye and tried to push the thoughts of his mind, but it was hard to do so.

_Hopefully, I'll see them again _he thought before heaving a heavy sigh and turning to walk over to one of the chairs to rest.


	17. Reuniting

**Meanwhile, further towards Central London**

Central London had been the hardest hit area of the Martian attack on the capital. Although most buildings were still standing, few were undamaged. Apparently, there was battle between two groups of British soldiers and a tripod. Judging by the devastation, the tripod must have blasted at the buildings either to prevent the men from going into them or the men had already taken cover in them and the Martians decided to destroy the buildings. Either way, it had most likely won. It must have been planting red weed when it was attacked because there was a large isolated pocket of the alien plant growing in a small park at the end of the road of where the battle took place.

In one of the streets, a large group of survivors walked. Among them were Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy. They had been quiet for most of the journey, partly because the crowd had been told not to make any noise in case any nearby Martians heard them. In Lizzy's coat pockets were the fairies, Rosetta, Iridessa and Clank in one and Silvermist, Vidia and Terence in the other. Vidia had been quiet for most of the morning. When they were on the move, she had apologized to Rosetta for what had happened last night. Rosetta also apologized and the two hoped to put it behind them, but it still lingered in their minds. Would another argument like last night happen again in the group? Hopefully not, but with the way things were now, it probably could.

As the group walked down to the end of the road, one of the officers, at the front of the crowd, looked at the layer of red over the greenery in the park.

"Bloody Hell!" he muttered, aghast with what he was seeing. "I can't believe they're doing that as well,"

"And I thought they were just invading to kill us all," the soldier walking net to him replied. "It's literally a war for our country,"

"Or our world," the officer corrected him.

As the officer reached the end of the road, he suddenly stopped and pushed the soldier back behind the wall of the building, whipping out his revolver pistol.

"Everyone stop!" he ordered. The rest of the crowd did so.

"What goin' on, sir?" a soldier asked.

"I saw movement in the road to our left," the officer replied. "Soldiers up 'ere!" he ordered.

About twenty soldiers and three other officers ran over to the first officer, who stepped down towards the corner, but suddenly stopped when he saw the shadow of someone on the pavement in front of him from around the other side of the corner.

"Alright, whoever it is that's there, come out slowly!" he barked, raising his weapon. The other soldiers and officer did the same.

The crowd moved over to the wall of the buildings the soldiers and officer were hiding behind.

"What if It's another tripod?" Lizzy asked worryingly.

"Don't worry, Lizzy," Mrs Perkins reassured her. "We'll be okay," though she sounded uncertain herself if they would be okay.

Iridessa looked out from the coat pocket of Lizzy's coat and saw everyone throw themselves against the walls of the buildings, anxious looks on their faces.

"What's going on, Iridessa?" Rosetta asked from the pocket.

"There's something up ahead," she told her.

"Oh no!" Silvermist said from the other pocket. "It's a tripod!" she said worryingly.

Terence and Vidia, who stuck their heads out from the pocket as well, gave each other worried looks.

"We're dead!" Vidia whimpered, slowly descending back into the pocket.

"Don't worry," Terence reassured her, though he too was uncertain and worried. "We'll be okay,"

At the head of the crowd, the officer aimed his pistol at the corner as the shadow began to move closer to it. When the whole of the shadow was revealed, the officer clutched his weapon tighter.

"Come out from behind the corner, slowly!" the officer barked.

The soldiers and officer aimed their weapons at the corner as well, waiting tensely for who was to come out from behind the corner.

Then, the figure emerged from behind the corner. He was a man dressed in a suit, or what had been a suit as the colour of the black top and trousers was faded as well as the red tie on the front of the top. He too looked tired and his hair looked faded. Dark rings circled his eyes. When he saw the soldiers and officers with their guns raised at him, he raised his arms in panic.

"No, don't shoot!" he exclaimed.

The officer lowered his weapon. "Are you on your own?" the officer asked.

"No," another voice said and another officer, who was elderly, about in his late fifties, with grey hair that looked greyer than normal, a tattered and faded uniform and a face that showed the clear signs of exhaustion and illness.

The officer with the crowd sighed in relief and turned to everyone else. "It's alright, we're safe," he called. Everyone moved away from the walls. As they did, another group of about forty people came around the corner.

"We're glad we found ya," the officer said to the officer leading the crowd. "Thought we were on our own,"

"Same 'ere," the other officer replied.

Further towards the centre of the crowd, Mr and Mrs Perkins and Lizzy watched as the new group of people began to join their crowd.

"Thank God It's just other people," Mr Perkins said.

"Yes, I thought we would be attacked then," Mrs Perkins replied.

The fairies looked out of Lizzy's coat pockets at the new group of people.

"Just another crowd," Silvermist said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"D'you think there are more people in the city?" Terence asked.

"Maybe," Vidia replied. "I just hope there's not a lot of Martians here with us," she added.

As the two groups joined, Lizzy looked at the faces of them all with sorrow. They were all tired and worried, some looked ill as well. It was horrible to think that they, like her and everyone in the crowd she was part of, had been driven out of their homes and turned instantly into the refugees. She sighed, knowing that there were probably many other children that were separated from their parents and probably even their brothers and sisters, not even knowing if they would see them again.

"Lizzy!"

Lizzy looked up to see a woman running towards her. She had short brown hair that cascaded down the top of her back, green eyes and a pretty face with a small nose and soft cheeks. She was wearing a black kind of dress with small black slip on shoes. Lizzy's face lit up.

"Mother!" she exclaimed, running to her.

When they met, Lizzy's mother embraced her tightly and Lizzy embraced her tightly as well. Tears ran down their faces.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Lizzy's mother said.

"So am I," Lizzy replied, hugging her mother around the neck. "I never thought I would see you again,"

"Rebecca," Mrs Perkins said as she and her husband walked over to them.

"Oh, Mr and Mrs Perkins," Rebecca said, getting up. "Thank you so much!" she said, hugging both of them tightly. "Thank you so much for getting my daughter here,"

"It's okay," Mr Perkins said as Rebecca released him.

In Lizzy's coat pockets, the fairies watched what was going on. Rosetta smiled and wiped away a tear from her eye.

"Aaaawww!" Iridessa said happily. "I'm so glad Lizzy's reunited with her mother.

"She's pretty," Clank said.

"Yeah, she is," Rosetta agreed.

In the other pocket, Terence smiled. "Well, I'm glad Lizzy's mother's alive," he said.

"Same here," Vidia and Silvermist replied in unison.

It was then Rebecca noticed someone was missing. "W-where's Martin?" she asked.

Upon hearing these words, Mr and Mrs Perkins' faces, along with Lizzy's and the fairies', changed from happiness to worry and concern. The fairies looked at one another. How could they tell her?

"Um…we…we don't know," Mrs Perkins said.

"What! B-but why? Why isn't he here?" she asked desperately.

"When we were leaving the house, he said he was going to try and phone you and warn you, mother," Lizzy explained. "He also had to stay to warn the fairies of what was happening,"

"Oh," Rebecca's face saddened. She was worried for her husband. Even though they had not been together for some time, she still loved him and now that he was not here and was probably dead. She sighed again. "Well, we can only hope he will come to us again,"

"Alright, everyone, c'mon!" one of the officers at the front of the crowd announced. "We're moving on,"

The crowd followed the officers right down one of the next road. Rebecca walked alongside her daughter.

"I hope your father's okay," she said.

"I hope so too," Lizzy replied. "And I hope Tinkerbell and the other fairies are okay," she added.

Rebecca looked at her daughter awkwardly. "Your fascination with fairy tales certainly hasn't changed," she said.

"No, mother, It's true. They're real. Even father says so," Lizzy told her.

"Now don't tell me your father's joined you in this silly nonsense as well,"

"It's not silly, mother. It's true and I can prove it," Lizzy opened her pockets and said: "Come out, fairies. Show my mother you really exist,"

As if on cue, they all shot out of the pockets and hovered in front of Rebecca, who was startled by this. She stared at them wide-eyed and they smiled and waved.

"See, they're all real," Lizzy said.

"I…wow!" was all Lizzy's mother could say. "I…I stand corrected," she said.

The fairies smiled at each other and, with a final wave to Lizzy's mother, flew back into Lizzy's coat pockets.

"And I thought your father was working too hard when he spoke to me a few days ago to pick you up," Rebecca said, making her and Lizzy laugh a little as they walked on with the crowd down the next road further into the city.


	18. Death of a friend

**Later that day**

**Somewhere near the north of central London**

As the day had worn on, clouds had begun to gather in the skies over the great city, or what was left of it. A storm was coming in and it would probably last the night. Still, though, the Martian assault on the city was continuing. More fires seemed to be raging in the city and more tripods seemed to have arrived into London. Whether they were coming here to build, as they were reportedly doing in some cities and had been on the outskirts of the city, or to find more Humans was unknown.

In the streets of the northern area of central London, three fairies and a mouse crawled over the rubble from buildings, cars, fallen trees and gas lamps scattered about in the streets. It was Tinkerbell, Fawn, Bobble and Cheese. They had survived their encounter with the Martians last night, though only just, and had been able to get through the night without any further incidents. They had woken up late this morning, had a quick breakfast of the bits of food left in the house they had stayed in and then worked their way through London in the direction of the Thames. Like in Pixie Hollow, the fairies had built their settlements near water and the Humans had done the same, though they did have a doubt on whether they would stay near water when there was an invasion, especially one by a race that does not come from Earth, but they still had to try it and see if they could find anyone else that would be alive in the city.

"How much farther do we have to go?" Fawn asked.

"If I remember right, not far," Tinkerbell replied.

"Let's just hope we find somewhere to stay soon," Bobble piped up, looking up at the darkening sky. "It's does not look like good weather up there,"

"Don't worry, we'll find somewhere to stay and rest for the night," Tinkerbell reassured him.

However, she was beginning to doubt where they could stay. Where could they rest for the night though? Going into another house was the obvious choice, but would it be safe? Last night they had gone into a normal house and it had ended up being searched by a group of Martians. Would it happen again, and if so; would they be able to hide from them? They had been lucky once not to have been found, but would they be so lucky again?

A flash of light illuminated the sky, followed by a rumble of thunder, and seconds later, raindrops began to fall from the clouds above, light at first but they quickly grew heavy.

"Well, this is perfect summer weather," Fawn said sarcastically.

"Let's try and find a place to set down for the night," Bobble said, another crack of lightning and a rumble of thunder filled the air as he stopped speaking.

"There!" Tinkerbell exclaimed, pointing down the end of the road, which joined onto a larger main road, at a large building, or what was left of it.

The building she was pointing at looked like a replica of a church, only it had two towers at the front of it, both of which had large holes in them and the windows that had been along the top and sides were either smashed or replaced with holes. There were large glass windows along the sides and rear of the back of the building and they too had been smashed or replaced with large holes, as had much of the roof of the back of the building. The large pair of brown doors on the front of the building, at the top of a flight of stairs, was also damaged. One was broken in half whilst the other was leaning in slightly. The building was surrounded by a grove of trees and grass, which was, like all vegetation was now in London, covered in a layer of red weed. The road in front of the building was littered with destroyed cars and rubble from the nearby houses.

"Are you sure that's a good idea going in there?" Bobble asked Tinkerbell.

"It's big and there'll be plenty of places to hide and sleep," she told him.

"It'll also most likely be the first place where the Martians are to look," he told her.

"Well I'm up for going in there, even if it to be searched," Fawn piped up. "Besides, like Tink said, they'll be plenty of places of hide if the Martians do search the building,"

"That's the spirit, Fawn!" Tinkerbell exclaimed. "What about you, Cheese?"

The field mouse gave a nod and a squeak, meaning he was happy going in there as well.

"Well, that's three against one, Bobble," Fawn said to him. "You still up for finding somewhere else?"

He looked at them and the building and looked like he wanted to protest, but decided not to.

"No," he said, sighing a little.

"Alright then, It's settled," Tinkerbell said. "Let's go,"

The three fairies and the field mouse ran down the road towards the large building. Even though it was far away to them, their will to get out of the rain and find somewhere to hide made them feel like they could reach this building in just a few seconds, which, if it was not raining, they could, but unfortunately, fairies could not fly in the rain and riding Cheese would not be much better because the weight of three fairies would slow him down, so they were going to have to make do with walking.

As they reached the end of the road that joined onto the main road, Fawn stopped and noticed something by the side of the road. It was a large wall of grey lying on the pavement. A small kind of curved bulge was sticking out of the top of it and the right end of the wall had…brown hair?

"Hey guys!" she called. "Look at this!" she said, running over to the wall.

"Uh, Fawn, wait!" Bobble called from behind.

When she reached it and walked around the other side, Fawn gasped and clasped her hands over her mouth, her eyes growing as wide as dinner plates. She was so shocked she fell back onto the ground and looked like she was about to burst into tears.

What she was seeing in front of her was the body of a Human man, but he was not just dead. His body was shrivelled in a way like she had never seen before, or even imagined, as if it had been drained of all liquid. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open, both contorted into a look of terror. There was a large hole in the chest of his suit and a small wound was visible. By the looks of it, the shrivelled body and the wound on his chest was probably the result of a Martian tripod sucking the blood out of him and leaving the corpse to rot.

A hand threw itself over Fawn's eyes and mouth and pulled her away.

"I told you not to look, lass!" he said.

He pulled Fawn away from the body and she weakly began to cry in his arms.

"I can't believe I saw something like that!" she cried. "I can't believe someone would do something like that to someone else!"

Bobble felt the same way sighed and looked up at Tinkerbell and Cheese with sad eyes. It was horrible to know that the Martians were doing something like this. Why would they ever do something like this? These creatures had advanced technology and people with advanced technology should know better than to inflict such horrible things onto another race.

"C'mon!" he said after a few moments, lifting her head up with his fingers and giving her a small smile. "We better go inside," he told her. "Don't worry, nothing like that'll happen to us,"

Fawn gave a small nod and got up and followed Bobble, Tinkerbell and Cheese towards the building.

"That was really nice of you to comfort her, Bobble," Tinkerbell whispered to him.

He nodded. "She's my friend, I couldn't leave her like that,"

_I think she's more than just your friend _Tinkerbell thought, but said nothing.

The group finally reached the building after a few minutes and climbed up the steps to the top. As they reached the top, Tinkerbell suddenly stopped and looked around, taking in the structure.

"Hey guys," she said, stopping the others. "I recognize this place," she said, a small smile growing on her face.

"Do you?" Fawn asked her.

"Yeah, don't you remember?" Tinkerbell asked her happily. "This is where we saved Vidia and made Lizzy's father believe! This is that science place we had followed him to,"

The other two looked around and smiled. "Oh yeah," Fawn said.

"Now I remember," Bobble piped up.

It was a good moment of reminiscence. Last year, they had only just saved Vidia by making Lizzy fly and she had narrowly stopped him from taking Vidia inside to show to the science people inside. Afterwards, he had changed and believed in fairies and respected them as people, not as study for science.

Though it was amazing to see, Tinkerbell did have a thought of what might have happened if they had not gotten here in time to save Vidia? She would have been kept here and probably cut up and studied and probably not even treated fairly. They had narrowly saved her last time, but still she just thought of what would have happened if Vidia had been shown to the science people inside the building. The whole existence of fairies would have been revealed and it would not have been safe for them to return to bring the seasons to the land and-

"Tinkerbell!" Fawn called, snapping Tinkerbell out of her thoughts. "C'mon, we better go inside,"

Tinkerbell nodded and followed Bobble, Cheese and Fawn into the building through the hole between the two doors. The room on the inside was large and shaped like rectangle with a curved end. Many tables and scientific equipment and books and journals lay scattered everywhere, some broken others in perfect condition. A few chairs were also broken and scattered everywhere amongst the piles of rubble from the ceiling. A set of stone pillars went along the right and left walls and about three were completely destroyed. Another two had large chunks missing from them. Large holes were visible in the ceiling and rain was pouring in from them.

As the four moved into the room, a small cloud of dust and tiny bits of stone fell from above to the floor next to them. They looked up to see a large stone, bigger than the body of the man they had seen outside, high above the door. It looked unstable but was managing to stay in place, though only just.

"I hope that doesn't fall on us," Tinkerbell said.

Bobble and Fawn nodded in agreement and the four walked into the large room, gazing at the destruction and the few remaining scientific equipment scattered everywhere. They were a mixture of knives, pins, magnifying glasses and such, all of which made the four shiver and remember very well how close they had come to failing to save Vidia.

"So much for being place of science," Fawn said.

"Wonder if there's anything we can sleep on," Bobble muttered as he looked around the room.

After a few minutes, he found a large book with thick pages placed up against a large piece of stone that had been part of the ceiling. "Hey guys, over here," he called and they ran over to him. "I think I've found something that we can use to rest on," he said, holding up one of the thick pages. "May not be much but It's better than nothing,"

"It's perfect," Tinkerbell said. "Well we better get some sleep then,"

"C'mon, Cheese," Fawn said and the mouse placed his front paws on the front of the book and pulled himself up. He scuttled over to the left end of the book next to the stone and curled up into a ball. Tinkerbell, Fawn and Bobble joined him, leaning against him.

"Hey Bobble," Fawn said.

"Yes?" he turned over to look at her. "What is it?"

"Y'know when you were holding my hand yesterday to keep me calm from the Martians?" she asked and he nodded. "I felt…safe when I was holding you hand and with you,"

Bobble blushed a little but tried not to show it. He coughed into a closed fist. "Well…I…I didn't want you to panic," he said. "I…just wanted to keep you and the others safe,"

"You liked it though, didn't you?"

He smiled a little. "Yes," he admitted.

Fawn smiled and placed her hand on his. He smiled and she moved closer to him and embraced him tightly. He embraced her back. They were real friends and they loved each other like real friends.

"Not disturbing anything, am I?" Tinkerbell said from next to Bobble, startling both of them.

"Oh!" the two quickly let go of each other. "Uh, no! No, not really!" Bobble replied.

"Yeah, nothing at all," Fawn said, smiling meekly.

Tinkerbell rolled her eyes. "Okay. Night guys," she said.

"Night," Bobble and Fawn replied in unison.

As Tinkerbell rested her head against Cheese's side, she looked at the field mouse, who also rolled his eyes.

"They hide it very well, don't they," she said sarcastically to the mouse, who nodded and nuzzled his head into his paw and fell asleep. Tinkerbell sighed and looked up at the hole above them in the ceiling and looked at a small break in the clouds as they moved overhead. A sense of relief and hope swept through her. Maybe…just maybe, there was still hope that the Humans would prevail, even when it looked like there was no hope for them to defeat the Martians.

"Maybe we can win," she whispered to herself.

Finally, her eyelids grew heavy and she closed them and let herself fall into a deep sleep.

**Several hours later**

The storm had mostly moved on by now. Rain was still falling, but it was much lighter and the thunder and lightning was almost gone as well, only just visible and able to be heard in the distance. Apart from the pitter patter of the rain falling onto the road and buildings, it was completely quiet.

Inside the laboratory, the fairies were sound asleep. Bobble had one arm tucked under himself and the other placed over Fawn's shoulder, holding her in a kind of embrace. She was facing away from him, but had her hand resting on his arm placed on her shoulder as if to keep it there. Tinkerbell had brought her knees up close to her chest and had her arms resting on Cheese's side.

Fawn shifted a little in her sleep. She was dreaming happily of returning home to Neverland from all of this. She was dreaming of seeing the others all well and happy again and all of the animals she would have been training all going back to their normal duties in their summer life. She smiled. It was beautiful to see all of thi-

A soft humming sound suddenly came into her dreams. She looked around but saw nothing that was making it, but it was still there. She stirred and opened her eyes slightly.

"Wha…what is that noise?" she asked herself quietly, lifting her head up slightly.

It was almost pitch black around her, but as she looked over her shoulder, she could just make out the forms of Cheese, Tinkerbell and Bobble. The soft humming noise was not coming from them, so where was it coming from.

A tap in front of her made her look ahead of her and she saw a large shape hovering just a few feet in front of her. She rubbed her eyes and moaned a little to try and wake up. Just as she lowered her hands, the object opened up into a kind of eye and two small lights came to life on the side of the eye.

Fawn screamed and backed away. Bobble, Tinkerbell and Cheese jolted awake immediately and saw what was making Fawn scream.

It was another Martian mechanical eye.

The fairies and the mouse backed away as the eye advanced towards them, It's lights shining directly onto them like a predator fixed onto It's prey.

"What do we do?" Fawn exclaimed worryingly.

Bobble looked around for something, anything to defend themselves! He found it a moment later. A small pile of rubble was next to the book and a small sharp needle was sticking out of it. The needle was about the length of him and was thick, to him. He grabbed it.

"Go! Hide!" he shouted to the others as he swung the needle at the mechanical eye.

Tinkerbell and Fawn jumped off the book, Cheese following close behind. They flew over towards a tall pile of rubble and set themselves down on the top. Cheese squeaked loudly as he reached the bottom of the pile of rubble and tried to jump up to the top.

"C'mon, let's help him," Tinkerbell said to Fawn and they lowered their hands for him to grab so they could pull him up.

"Back! Get back!" Bobble was shouting at the mechanical eye, swing the needle at it.

The eye advanced towards him, making him back away to the edge of the book. Bobble began to panic, but tried to stand his ground and swung the needle at the mechanical eye. The point tore into the headlight of the left triangle piece of the eye. He must have hit something within it because the light flickered and shut off. Several sparks fell from the triangle section. The eye reared back slightly. Bobble smiled a little, a sense of hope in beating the eye swept through him.

However, it was short lived. The eye looked back down at him and, enraged like a predator that had been hit by It's prey, swung itself sideways at him, hitting Bobble in the side and throwing him through the air to the floor.

"Bobble!" Fawn exclaimed in worry.

She went to fly over to him, but the lights from the mechanical shined onto them and began to advance towards then. The two pulled Cheese up onto the top of the pile of rubble but backed away the eye approached, worry filling them. Even if they flew away, the eye would follow them, and they could not fly outside because it was still raining. They were trapped!

Bobble groaned as he sat up from the floor, rubbing the side of his head where it had hit the floor when the mechanical eye had struck him. A scream from the pile of rubble nearby made him look over to see Fawn, Cheese and Tinkerbell trapped by the eye, which was beginning to rise up the pile of rubble towards them. His eyes widened in terror.

It was then Bobble remembered the mechanical eye. It was like a long snake and he followed the body of it back down the room towards the door. The door! It was directly below the unstable stone! An idea popped into his head and he immediately flew towards the door.

"Bobble, where are you going?" Tinkerbell shouted at him.

He did not answer. He flew on to the top of the stone. Even though it was big, it was really unstable, as he and the others had seen when they entered the building. He began jumping up and down on it, trying to make his weight force the stone out of It's position and onto the body of the mechanical eye below.

_Please work! _He mentally pleaded. _Please! _

He continued jumping up and down on the stone. Gradually, it was moving out of place, but not enough for it to fall. He looked at the others, who were now near the edge of the top of the pile of rubble they were on. Upon seeing this, Bobble sighed in frustration that his plan had not worked and took off towards him.

Just as he did, the stone suddenly shifted to one side and fell out of place, falling directly towards the body of the snake-like mechanical eye.

CRASH! Bobble, who was about half-way to the others, turned to see the stone was gone. He looked down to see it resting on the struggling and writhing body of the mechanical eye like a snake would do when it is stuck. He looked over at the front of the eye and watched as I swung up and down and side to side, smashing the other headlight on the front and cracking the glass front. More scratches appeared along the side of the silver armour of the eye. Finally, with a final swing to the floor, the eye smashed and the front fell off from the rest of the snake-like part of the body, which quickly withdrew away back outside, pushing the stone off it, revealing a large crushed middle section, and disappeared from sight.

Bobble flew over to Cheese, Tinkerbell and Fawn, who breathed a sigh of relief when the snake-like body of the eye disappeared.

"Thanks, Bobble," Tinkerbell said.

"Yeah, thanks so much," Fawn piped up, hugging him tightly.

"It's okay," he said as Fawn released him. "Listen, I think we better go, quickly. The tripod outside might destroy the building,"

Tinkerbell nodded. "Alright, let's go," she said and she picked up one of Cheese's paws, the other two grabbing his back paws, and they lifted him up and flew towards the door.

As they emerged outside, they flew left off the steps and onto the grass. As they landed on the ground, a loud fog horn blast made them cover theirs ears. They looked out from behind the step and saw the reason why.

A tripod was standing about fifty feet from the laboratory. However, it looked different than when normal. The silver armour on the front was more dirty and looked like it had not been cleaned, despite the fact that it was raining, one of the neon eyes was smashed open completely, the middle section was riddled with holes and it looked like it was struggling to stand up, even though there were no damage on the legs of the machine.

Then, the silo laser on the side of the main section opened up and the lighthouse light shone out from it onto the building.

"Quick run!" Tinkerbell said.

The four ran from the building as fast as they could. Seconds later, the sky lit up and they looked to see a wave of fire shoot out from the tripod at the building. At once, the stone walls and the two towers seemed to just explode into flames. Rubble fell onto the road below. The brown doors were blown down and incinerated and the ceiling collapsed into dust with the walls following suite moments later.

Luckily the four had gotten away just in time, having to dodge the remains of one of the towers as part of it collapsed and fell onto the road. They stopped behind a car turned on It's side, breathing heavily as they tried to regain their breath.

"That…that was a close one!" Fawn gasped.

"Y-yeah!" Tinkerbell replied. "You okay, Cheese?" she asked the field mouse, who was pretty shaken up by what had just happened, but he was okay.

Loud footfalls from the road drew their attention back to the tripod. The huge machine was stepped forward, staggering slightly on one leg, towards the remains of the building. A large headlight turned on somewhere on the front of the machine and began moving up and down the pile of rubble. Part of the view was hidden by the trees so Tinkerbell began climbing up the side of the car to try and get a better view of what the tripod was doing now.

"Tinkerbell, I don't think that's a good idea," Fawn warned.

"Don't worry, I'll be able to get down," she replied.

"That's not what I meant," Fawn mumbled.

As Tinkerbell grabbed hold of the side of the driving wheel, she saw part of the circular outside of it was broken. Damn! She would have to go across to the other side of it and climb up onto the top.

Pulling herself up onto the wheel, she began to slowly move across it, but as she reached the middle of it…

BEEEEEEEEPPPPPP!

Tinkerbell screamed in alarm and fell backwards from the wheel to the ground. The noise had made Bobble and Fawn scream and jump back in surprise, but, unfortunately, also out from behind the car. At the same time, the tripod turned to look towards the car, the headlight shining directly at them.

"RUN!" Fawn screamed.

The four ran from the car. Loud footfalls shook the ground and they looked to see that the tripod was chasing them. It's tentacles waved menacingly about in the air, ready to lunge out and grab any one of the four.

As the four reached the pavement on the other side of the road, near a long wooden plank that led up to a second floor window of the house behind them, one of the tentacles shot towards the four. They dived out of the way, narrowly avoiding the deadly tentacle as the metallic tentacle slammed into the pavement, leaving a long and deep trench in it and part of the road.

"Tinkerbell!" Fawn called as she, Bobble and Cheese got up from the floor.

"I'm alright!" she called back.

Suddenly, another tentacle swung towards them. Fawn, Bobble and Cheese dived out of the way, narrowly avoiding it as the enormous metallic weapon swung into a gas lap, breaking it in two as if it was a two pick, and throwing the remains across the road and through the window of another house.

"C'mon!" Bobble said, grabbing Fawn by the arm and began running across the road back towards the laboratory. "C'mon, Cheese!" he shouted to the field mouse.

"What about Tinkerbell?" Fawn said to him.

"We have to try and lose this tripod first," he replied, pulling Fawn to the ground to avoid another swing from another of the tripod' tentacles. "We have to make it fall over,"

Behind them, the tripod seemed to be trying to avoid doing just that. Even though it was enormous to the fairies and could easily overtake them with just one step of It's enormous legs, it was struggling to keep up with them. Something was definitely wrong and as Bobble led Fawn and Cheese towards the remains of the laboratory, Fawn looked over her shoulder at the machine and she swore she could have just about seen the frustrated looks of the Martians inside the machine.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the trench created by the Martian tentacle, Tinkerbell got up and watched the tripod chase her friends. Even though it was staggering half the time, it was able to keep an eye on them, thanks to the headlight.

"I've gotta do something," she said to herself.

But what could she do? It was hardly like she could fight this thing. There just had to be a way for her to bring down, or at least distract the tripod, there just had to be!

Then, she remembered the wooden plank behind her. It must have been part of a ceiling or roof of a house or something like that. It led up to a second floor window of the house. As her eyes followed it up to the window, an idea began to form in her head. If she could find something inside the room to distract the tripod, she could lure it away from her friends and they could get away from here, but then she would have trouble with getting away from the tripod, which would be difficult as it could easily fire on her with It's laser. She sighed. She was going to have to take the risk and plus these were her friends in danger. She would do anything for them.

BOOM! Another of the tripod's tentacles swung at the road, snapping Tinkerbell out of her thoughts. She had to be quick. She ran over to the wooden plank and began running up it towards the top. Behind her, the crash and thuds the Martian tripod was making filled her ears, filling her with worry for her friends, but also filling her with determination to get up to that room and find something that would distract the tripod.

Finally, she reached the window and looked inside the room. It was small and square, but it was filled with boxes and had bare walls and a wooden floor. An old wooden table with large splinters sticking out of it was placed along the right wall with four boxes placed on the top of it. An old switch on lamp was placed on the table in front of the boxes and sticking out of the top of one of the boxes, which had _**old music stuff **_written in black ink across the side of it, was the end of a small toy trumpet.

Ecstatically and filled with determination, Tinkerbell flew over to the oil lamp, only just managing to stay in the air as her wings were still quite wet, and landed on the table. She pulled out one of the splinters and ran over to the oil lamp and turned it on. She placed the end of the splinter in the flame and it lit immediately. Her plan was working so far. Hopefully, it would stay that way.

She flew over to the toy trumpet, placing the burning end of the splinter near her back to dry her wings quickly, and lifted it up. Amazingly, only the end of it was left, the rest was gone, but this did not stop Tinkerbell. It was good enough. She flew over to the windowsill, the heat from the splinter having worked, and set down on it. She looked out across the road to see the tripod over at the remains of the laboratory again, though this time it was trying to kill her friends.

"I sure hope this works," Tinkerbell said worryingly to herself.

At the remains of the laboratory, Bobble had led Fawn and Cheese into a small hole under the remains of the wall, but it was just a hole and that was it. There was no other way out, other than the way they had come in! The tripod was lashing away at the rubble above, causing the ground to shake violently as the tentacles lashed out at the stone rubble. Fawn whimpered and Cheese squeaked in fear, shrinking down beside Bobble.

"I can't believe It's ending this way!" Fawn said, a tear running down her face, as she and Bobble backed away towards the wall at the back of the hole.

"Don't worry," Bobble reassured her, gently patting her arm but a small tear ran down his cheek. He too knew it was over. "We'll be okay,"

BOOM! Another thud shook the ground and part of the ceiling of rubble above caved in, revealing a tiny hole that showed the outside. They could just see the main section of the tripod through the hole. Another tentacle lashed down at the ceiling, making the hole even bigger. Fawn screamed and clutched tighter on Bobble's clothing.

All of a sudden, the tentacles stopped lashing out at the hole and loud footfalls filled the air. After about a second, Bobble took a step towards the end of the hole.

"Bobble, what are you doing?" Fawn hissed.

He held up his hand in reply and cautiously approached the entrance to the hole. He poked his head out from the hole and watched the tripod move away towards one of the houses. What was it that was drawing it away?

_"Over here!" _a familiar voice shouted from the window of the house the tripod was moving away to and a small pinprick of a light was waving about at the window.

"It's Tinkerbell!" Bobble exclaimed, turning to Fawn and Cheese. "She's drawing it away!"

Fawn and Cheese ran to the entrance of the hole and looked out with Bobble at the house. A sense of happiness filled them. They would have to thank Tinkerbell later.

At the house, Tinkerbell was waving the stick around madly in air in one hand whilst shouting into the end of the trumpet placed on the windowsill at her feet, praying that the tripod would come closer.

_C'mon, just a little bit closer! _She thought desperately. _Please, come closer!_

The headlight from the tripod shined onto her, blinding her and almost knocking her off her feet. At least her plan was working. It was focused on her, but now was the hard part. Now she had to get away before it destroyed the building.

Across the street, Fawn, Bobble and Cheese watched desperately.

"C'mon, Tinkerbell, get out of there!" Fawn said.

Tinkerbell dropped the burning splinter to the ground below and began to look around desperately for a way out. She could not go outside because of the tripod's tentacles and because it was still raining. The only way she could go now was inside the building and hopefully get as far in as possible.

Suddenly, a thundering crash filled the air and Tinkerbell looked and watched, as did Fawn, Bobble and Cheese across the road, as the rear leg of the tripod slammed into the car the four had been hiding behind earlier on. However, it must have gone through the road as well because it suddenly started staggering about and tried to regain It's footing. The machine tilted from side to side and reared back slightly before falling back on It's feet. Tinkerbell watched with a glint of hope. Was it going to fall over?

Her question seemed to have been answered almost instantly because it suddenly fell forward and crashed into the ground that shook the road, causing a few boxes in the room behind Tinkerbell to fall to the floor. A look of relief came upon her face. They were safe!

Across the road, Cheese squeaked happily and Fawn and Bobble embraced happily.

"We're safe!" Bobble said, hugging Fawn tightly.

"I thought they would never be beaten," she said. "I think we finally have a chance to be-"

_CRASH! _The three looked back across the street and their looks of happiness quickly changed into shock and fear. The tripod had been brought down, but when it had fallen over it had driven across the ground and slammed into the bottom of the house.

"Oh no!" Fawn gasped.

At the house, Tinkerbell had been knocked to the windowsill floor by the sudden crash. Realising the danger, she was just about to fly away when...

THUD! A small piece of rubble struck her head and knocked her to the windowsill floor. She yelled out in pain, but it was soon replaced with a scream as the inner walls of the house suddenly caved in and collapsed. She fell with the wave of rubble towards the ground, quickly being buried within, just as her scream was.

"NOOOOOO!" Fawn screamed in fear. "TINKERBELL?"

She received no reply.

"Oh no!" Bobble said.

Fawn ran off across the street, tears streaming down her face, fearing that her friend was dead. Bobble and Cheese followed close behind, both feeling in similar ways. As the dust cloud throw up by the collapse settled, the three saw that the tripod was almost completely buried, save for the legs which were sticking out from underneath it.

When Fawn reached it, she began climbing up the pile of rubble of the house.

"Tinkerbell?" she called out, desperately hoping to hear her voice again, but she did not. Fawn began to grow panic "I have to find her!" she cried, kneeling down and frantically pushing pieces of rubble out of the way.

Bobble went to join her when he heard the distant fog horn of a tripod. He looked in the direction of the noise, fear gripping him. There was no doubt they would come looking for their downed comrades to see if they were alive.

"Fawn!" he said, but she did not hear him. She was too busy muttering "I have to find her!" whilst choking back tears. "Fawn!" he said, kneeling down next to her and grabbing her. "We have to go!"

"No!" she protested, pushing him off her and resuming her digging. "We have to find Tinkerbell!"

"We can't look for her now! There's more of them coming!" Bobble warned.

"I DON'T CARE! I HAVE TO SEE IF SHE'S OKAY!" Fawn almost screamed at him, through anger and sadness. "I have to find Tinkerbell!"

"Fawn! Stop!" Bobble said, grabbing her and dragging her away from the rubble. She struggled fiercely but she gave up and broke down in his arms.

"I can't believe it!" she sobbed, burying her face in Bobbles' chest. "I can't believe she's gone!"

"I'm sorry!" Bobble said, cradling her head in his arms. A few tears fell down his face as well. "I'm sorry, Fawn!"

Fawn cried a river of tears, but there was nothing they could do. Their friend, their best friend, practically their sister… She was gone. She was dead.

"C'mon!" Bobble said weakly. "We have to go before more of them come!"

Fawn gave him a sad look; her eyes and face wet with tears, but said nothing. She wanted to stay here and look for Tinkerbell, even if it took the whole night, but with more tripods coming, that would have been suicide. She had no choice to accept the fact that Tinkerbell was dead, and even if she was alive, there was no way they could help her! They were going to have to leave her!

After a few moments, Fawn and Bobble got up and Bobble led her away. Cheese, who took one more look at the pile of rubble and wiped away a tear from his eye, followed close behind.

Under the pile of rubble, a small arm stuck out from underneath the remains of a stone wall. It was Tinkerbell's. Her arm moved about with groans of pain coming from underneath the wall. However, her had movement was getting slower. There was no way it would last. The part of the wall she was under shook a little as she tried to lift it with her other hand, but it was hopeless.

Then, her groans of pain stopped and she went quiet and her arm stopped writhing and struggling, never to move again.


	19. Are they alive?

**The next day**

**Northern Central London**

The crowd of refugees that Lizzy, her mother, Mr and Mrs Perkins were part of and the fairies had covered quite a lot of ground in the past day. They were close to the River Thames now, they would have reached it by last night, but tripods were moving about in the quickest route and they had to take an alternative route to get to the Thames, which would take them longer but it was safer, or had been so far.

The street they were walking down was nearer the central area of London. Far off ahead of them, the tower of Big Ben stood in the distance. All around them, the houses and shops were either completely or partially destroyed, obviously meaning that an attack had been on this area very recently. However, there was one change; the red weed was not as widespread anymore. Usually it was all over the place, choking the life out of the trees and grass and such, but now it seemed to have stopped growing all of a sudden. Few people had noticed it, but even those who had were unable to investigate why. There were still reports that tripods were in the city and stopping would put themselves and the crowd at risk of being spotted and killed.

Mr Perkins, who was walking alongside his wife behind Rebecca, who was holding Lizzy's hand, and Lizzy, surveyed the damage around the crowd.

"I can't believe the Martians have done all this," he said.

"Neither can I," his wife replied. "I hope Rebecca and Lizzy are okay," she whispered to her husband. "Rebecca's been awfully quiet since she heard Martin is not with us,"

"We just have to hope he is," her husband told her. "As much as I hate to admit it, I doubt he is, but still…there is a chance he could be,"

Mrs Perkins nodded. Even though she too did doubt that Martin could be alive, she still did hope he was. If he was not alive, Rebecca and Lizzy would be devastated, but they still had to not give up hope. He might be alive, but just not with them.

In Lizzy's coat pockets, the fairies were also thinking over whether their friends were alive. It had been days since they last saw them and with all that had happened, there was little chance they were, but they still did not give up hope. Even so, they still had the thought of them not being alive, or at least not all of them being alive, which they really cursed themselves for thinking of, in the back of their minds.

"I hope Tinkerbell, Fawn and Bobble and Cheese are okay," Silvermist said, moving away from the coat flap pocket after surveying the damage around the crowd. "It doesn't look like anything has survived unscathed out there,"

"I hope so too," Terence sighed. "I just want this all to be over so we can go looking for them, or at least go back to Neverland and they can come and help us look for them,"

"I doubt they would come out and reveal themselves to the Humans, though, Terence," Vidia piped up. "We've been hiding ourselves from them for centuries so I really doubt they'll just suddenly decide It's okay to look to reveal themselves to Humans and try and look for other fairies right in the middle of their city,"

"Well, you never know, Vidia," Terence replied. "They might have to. These are other fairies. I know Queen Clarion or anyone else wouldn't want to leave them on their own," he looked down at the floor. "I wouldn't want to leave them, especially Tinkerbell,"

"Don't worry, Terence," Silvermist said, moving over to him and resting a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "I'm sure Tinkerbell, Fawn, Bobble and Cheese are on their way to the river like we are. We'll meet up with them soon,"

He smiled a little at her, "I wish I had your faith, Silvermist," he said.

"Well I'm someone who never stops believing," she replied.

He smiled.

In the other coat pocket, the others were also talking about their missing friends.

"Where d'you think they could be?" Iridessa asked.

"Who knows," Rosetta replied. "With what happened at the river, I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up going back towards the fairy camp or somewhere like that,"

"I don't think so," Clank piped up. "I know Bobble would never leave his friends if he was separated from them and he would follow them. Same thing with Tinkerbell so they're probably somewhere in the city,"

"Maybe, but where exactly?" Rosetta asked.

"I just hope they're okay," Iridessa said. "I can't imagine what would happen if we found out they weren't alive,"

"Let's just try not to think about that, sug," Rosetta said.

Suddenly, the ground shook and the sound of murmuring from outside filled the air. The fairies in both of the pockets darted towards the flaps and looked out to see everyone looking around with confusion.

"What was that?"

"I dunno, but I don't sound good," another replied.

"Mother, I'm scared," Lizzy said, tightening her grip on her mother's hand.

"Don't worry, Lizzy," Rebecca reassured her daughter, though she sounded uncertain as well.

Suddenly, a woman at the back of the crowd screamed and everyone turned to see what was going, though they quickly saw what why as well.

Coming towards them was a tripod. Though it was staggering slightly, it was still a menacing sight. It's laser was already out and aiming directly at the crowd. The machine smashed through the remains of a house and one of It's legs uprooted a tree that was partially covered in the red weed, clearly showing that the Martians were getting desperate and were even willing to destroy what they had intended to grow on Great Britain in order to survive.

At once, a panic broke out in the crowd as everyone began running in all directions. Some soldiers began firing up at the tripod, as did some of the officers, but their bullets were no match for the thick armour of the machine.

"Stay with me, Lizzy!" Rebecca said, grabbing her daughter's arm and running with her down the road where many other people were heading to, so fast that Lizzy's bracelet fell off her hand and onto the ground.

Moments later, the heat ray of the Martian tripod aimed at the crowd and began firing, slaughtering everyone it touched.


	20. How to tell them?

**Meanwhile, further in north central London**

In a street filled with rubble from houses, trees, cars and with holes dotted around the ground that was the road, Cheese walked with Bobble walking alongside him. Fawn was sitting on Cheese' back. The two had been on the move since early this morning. Last night, an event they had never experienced occurred, and it was one that affected them deeply. Tinkerbell, their friend and a very well-known fairy in Neverland, was dead, killed when she was caught in a rubble landslide when a Martian tripod smashed into the building she was on, and she had been killed saving her friends. Her death had really affected them, so much so that they had barely spoken to one another when they had woken up, as if they felt themselves not worthy to speak for their friend to pay the price for saving them. It was the guilt survivors regularly felt when they watched their friends die and they would question themselves why they had died, or why they themselves had lived. Bobble, Cheese and Fawn felt pretty much the same way. They were mentally asking themselves why Tinkerbell had to die and why they had to live. They wanted her back, but…there was nothing they could do about it now. She was gone and that was it.

As Cheese climbed over the top of a fallen gas lamp, Bobble looked ahead and through his goggled glasses, he could just about see the top of Big Ben in the far off distance.

"There's that big tower," he said to Fawn, pointing ahead at it to Fawn. "If I remember correctly, that's where the river is,"

Fawn nodded. "Okay," she said quietly.

"We might meet the others there," Bobble said. "I hope they're okay,"

Silence descended between the two as they moved further down the road. Even though they had wings, they did not feel like flying there, mainly because they had little pixie dust left and they had to bring Cheese with them as well, which would use up almost the last of their pixie dust, but also because…because they just did not feel in a flying mood. Usually, flying was associated with happiness, but…with Tinkerbell gone…was there any point in being happy?

"How d'you think we're gonna tell them?" Fawn asked.

Bobble sighed. "I…I…I don't know, Fawn," he replied. "I haven't... Well, really thought about it," He paused. "It's…It's still affecting me,"

"I can't imagine what the others are going to feel like when we tell them," Fawn said.

"I know," Bobble replied. "It'll be hard,"

"And Neverland'll never be the same,"

"Fawn, please stop," Bobble wiped away a tear from his eye, but hold back a few more.

Silence fell between them again for a few moments until Fawn broke the silence.

"How d'you think we should tell them?" she said.

"I don't know, Fawn!" Bobble blurted out in an angry type of voice, making Cheese squeak nervously. "I don't know, okay! Can we please, just…stop?"

He took a deep breath to calm down and looked up at Fawn.

"I'm sorry, Fawn," he said. "I didn't mean to say that,"

She nodded a little, whether she was accepting it or not, he did not know, but he was mentally cursing himself. Tinkerbell's death was having a big impact on both of them and they could only imagine how the others would feel when they told them. It would be horrible!

After a few moments, Bobble said: "C'mon, we better keep moving," and they continued on.

"I hope we meet the others there," Fawn said.

"We will," Bobble replied, though a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

Whether the others would even be at the river, he did not know. He kept the thought that the Martians had killed them all out of his mind and aggressively told himself the others _would_ be there and they _would_ meet them there.

That was providing, though, that the Martians did not get there first.


	21. Discovering their weakness

**One hour later**

**In central London**

The attack by the tripod on the crowd of refugees moving towards the Thames River had been quick and over in a few minutes, but it had been bloody. Most of the crowd had been vaporized and of many of those that had not been killed by the laser were to fall victim to the bloodsucking instruments of the enormous machine. The bodies of many of the dead were scattered up and down the main street and the streets that came off the main street, shrivelled like prunes and all life gone of any life. This was truly a place of unspeakable death.

Walking down the street was Martin. He had a small bag in his hand that was filled with a few pieces of bread and a few biscuits. The soldier had given it to him earlier this morning when Martin was leaving to continue the search for his daughter. The soldier had decided to stay and continue his digging for what he called a 'New Beginning' under London, but wished Martin luck in the search for his daughter.

Although Martin had not yet found his daughter or his wife he had found something else. He had found many of the Martian tripods that had been roaming the streets of London, searching for Humans like predators searching prey, were now gone, not gone by meaning they had left the city but gone by meaning they were mostly lying on the ground or in buildings as if they had all suddenly collapsed for no reason. Why this had happened, Martin did not know, but he did not want to investigate the ruined hulks of the machines. He just wanted to find his daughter and her friends and his wife. They had to be somewhere in London still, but the real question was; were they alive? For all he knew they could have been killed.

He mentally hit himself over the head for thinking something like that.

_What kind of an idiot are you? _His mind seemed to growl at him. _They're not dead! They're still alive!_

"But what if they are?" Martin asked himself.

_There are __**not**__ dead! _His mind repeated.

Martin sighed. He was stuck between what might have happened to them and the belief that they were still alive. Any one of the two could be right. After all, so many had died so far and there was no chance that the Martians would spare anyone entirely, even if they were children or fairies. He sighed again and just mentally prayed that they were all okay. They had to be! if they were dead, then he would not be able to go on with his wife, it would have virtually lost all meaning.

As Martin passed a small jewellery shop, the sound of heavy breathing emanated from it. He stopped and looked through the hole in the front of the shop, where the window and the door of the shop had been before being destroyed by a swipe of a metallic tentacle from one of the Martian tripods several days ago, to see a figure leaning against the wall of the shop behind the counter. Curious, Martin stepped towards the shop, gazing at the figure. As he approached, he saw the figure was a man; a large heavily built man dressed in grey top, grey trousers and had a pair of braces over his shoulders. A small hat was placed on his head, partly hiding a messy crop of black hair. The man had a ruddy pockmarked face and a look of anger etched on his face, as if he was frustrated at fighting a cold. He was coughing slightly and every time he did, a ball of spit fell from his mouth, spraying over the wall, the ground or his black shoes or even his small bearded face just below his large round-like nose.

"A-are you okay there, sir?" Martin said to the man.

At once, the man's head snapped up to look at Martin, who knew at once that this man was not happy to see him, which he could tell by the look of anger in his eyes and the way his teeth clenched. He moved menacingly away from the wall towards the hole.

"Bugger off!" he shouted. "Beat it, yer berk! Go on before I drop yer!"

Martin backed away, half raising his hands to defend himself. "I-I'm s-sorry!" he stammered. "I just wanted to-"

"Ya want my food and wa'er don't ya!" the man barked at Martin stepping onto the pavement. The smell of liquor filled Martins' nose, which only heightened the fear in him. "Well, ya can bugger off! Iss mine, ya hear me! Mine! Now Psssoff!"

He advanced towards Martin but stumbled and landed flat on his face. His nose crashed into the ground and began to bleed heavily. The man yelled and cursed as he sat up, glaring up at Martin who shook his head slightly, turned and walked away.

"Thass right, ya piss off, ya berk!" the man shouted at him, waving his fist at him.

Martin sighed. "I bet the Lord would beg to differ," he muttered under his breath.

He walked down the street onto the main street. When he was about half-way down the street, he saw the tower of Big Ben and the spires of the Houses of Parliament in the distance over the rooftops. A sense of relief filled him. Maybe there he would find more people. Maybe he would even find his daughter and his wife and his friends! Those thoughts filled with him a sense of happiness that began to blind him to the outside world, so much so that he failed to notice a body lying on the ground in front of him.

Martin tripped over the body and crashed to the ground. Groaning, he sat up, rubbing his head and grimaced when he saw the shrivelled face of the woman he had fallen over.

"My God!" he whispered under his breath, completely breath taken at what he was seeing.

As he turned to get up, his hand landed on something on the ground and he looked to see a small golden bracelet with tiny stars and fairy wands on it lying on the ground. He picked it up and gazed at it.

"Where have I seen this before?" he asked himself.

He had seen this somewhere before, definitely, but where? He searched his thoughts hard and moved onto his knees as he examined it. There was definitely a time had seen this before, he was completely sure of that, but he just could not remember where! Damn it, come on, he had to figure it out.

"C'mon, where have I seen this before?" he muttered to himself.

Slowly, an idea began to form in his head over where he had seen this before. It was someone he knew well… yes, definitely that, but who? Mrs Perkins? No. Not any of Lizzy's fairy friends because it was too big for them. Who wore this damn bra-

Wait! Martins' eyes grew wide upon realising where he had seen this bracelet before. He shook his head slightly as if refusing the answer, but he knew it very well. He knew the person who had worn this bracelet very well.

That person…was Lizzy!

"No!" he gasped under his breath as tears began to form in his eyes. He stared down at the bracelet in his hand, shaking his head at it as if he was begging it to reveal a different answer to him but it would not. The answer he had been revealed was the true one.

"No! No, this can't be!" he began to whimper.

A tear rolled down his face and dripped onto his trousers. More followed and soon his cheeks were wet with tears. He buried his face in his hands and began to sob.

"My little girl!" he sobbed. He moved his hands away from his face and looked down at the bracelet through his tear filled eyes. "I'm so sorry, Lizzy!" he said, hoping she could hear him from above. "I should never have left you!"

He wiped away the tears from his eyes, but they were quickly replaced with more. He was filled with complete sadness and grief. His daughter was gone, her friends were mostly likely gone as well. Mr and Mrs Perkins and his wife…Rebecca.

They were all gone!

He buried his face in his hands again and began to cry.

_THUD! THUD! THUD! _

Slowly, Martin looked up from his cradling position on the ground and saw what was making the ground shake.

About seventy feet ahead of him, and advancing up the road on staggering legs, almost falling over several times, was a Martian tripod. It was a complete mess. The armour was now cracked and split and the colour of the silver was completely faded, both of the neon green eyes on the front had been smashed open, the tentacles on the front were no longer waving about as they had done before and instead just hung there as if they were dead, the legs were moving awkwardly as if it was struggling to hold up the weight of the machine and the dome on the back of the main section was cracked and broken. However, what was really noticeable was the orangey colour below the eyes.

At once, a sense of a feeling Martin had not felt for a long time filled him. It was anger! He shot up from the ground, clutching the bracelet tightly in his fist. He choked back several tears on his angered face. He just wanted it to all be over for him now. His daughter was gone, her friends and his wife were also dead. What did he have to lose now?

"Here I am!" he shouted sat the tripod out of blind anger and grief. "I'm right here! Take me!"

The tripod stopped about fifty feet from him and staggered about, struggling to stay upright, but he was too angry and upset to see it.

"Come on! You've taken my wife and my daughter and my friends!" he shouted up at the tripod. "Take me already! Just put me out of my misery!"

Groaning came from the tripod as the metal holding it together began to strain. It began to tilt to one side and It's legs tried desperately to keep it upright.

"Come on!" Martin was almost yelling at the tripod. "TAKE ME!"

Finally, the tripod tipped over too far to It's right and the legs gave in. With a deafening crash, the enormous machine smashed through several houses on the street next to it. A cloud of dust was thrown up into the air. Martin saw this and covered his face as several bits of rubble and dust flew out towards him.

After about a minute, the dust cloud settled, revealing the enormous bulk of the machine half buried in the rubble of what had been three houses. The legs, twisted and broken, stuck out from the pile of rubble into the street and a large gaping hole was now visible in the side of the head of the machine.

"What the…?" Martin muttered to himself, staring wide-eyed at the machine. Why had it just collapsed all of a sudden? More importantly; _what _had made it collapse?

Cautiously, he moved towards the machine, tensing himself in case he had to run if it suddenly got back up, but as he neared it, he began to realise that there was little, if any, chance of getting back up. Something as wrong with it, or, if not the machine, then the Martians piloting, but if so either way, what was it.

As Martin approached the hole, he heard a strangled hissing/breathing-like sound coming from inside the head of the machine. Fear gripped him and he began to think of just walking away, but he decided to press on and see what was wrong. He stepped towards the hole and looked inside.

The interior of the head of the Martian tripod was dimly lit with a just visible kind of chair attached to the floor in the middle of the room. A set of control panels were placed around the head, one in front of the chair and another along the wall just below the now smashed open eyes. Four more chairs were placed in front of the control panels. A large hole was visible above the middle chair and a kind of orangey liquid was dripping down from it.

Then, a shape moved near the eye of the head and Martin took a step into the head, his feet thudding loudly on the floor. The shape rose up and pulled itself into the middle of the eye, revealing itself to Martin. It was one of the Martians, but it was much different than to when he had last seen it. It's silver skin was now more of a grey colour, It's black colourless eyes were also more of a grey colour as if it was blind and were watering as if it was crying, an orange coloured saliva was dripping from it's mouth rather than the dark green saliva, a kind of green mucus was dripping from It's nose and the figure of the creature, particularly the torso, was much thinner than when he had last seen it. It was so thin; Martin swore he could almost make out the very bones inside the Martian.

The creature retched slightly as if it was about throw up. It's breathing was strangled and heavy as if it was gasping for breath. It tried to pull itself into the outside, but It's thin arms and body did not have the strength and it collapsed where it was on the eye.

Then, with a final breath, the creature went still and quiet, It's head turned on It's side and looking up at the sky as it was trying to talk to God or It's home world for rescue, but it would be receiving no help. Not anymore. Where it had gone, it no longer needed help.

"What has done this?" Martin said, looking around the head to see more of the bodies of the Martians lying on the floor, all of them dead and much like their comrade Martin had just watched die. He squatted down near one and saw that the green colour near It's nose was actually runny snot, much like you would get when you have a cold or the flu and the water around It's eyes had been much the same for when you have a cold. The water would try and get rid of the germs.

Martin's face lit up like a fire. That was why! That was why the tripod had collapsed and the Martians were dying. It was bacteria! Earth's bacteria and germs and illnesses! They were causing these creatures to die!

Martin stood up and walked out of the head and back into the street. He felt a little relieved. He knew why they were dying. If he could find other survivors, he could tell them what the Martians' weakness was. They could easily defeat the last of them. They could finally win this war.

However, it was then Martin remembered the bracelet in his hand and he looked down at it and sighed. He may have found out the weakness of the Martians…but it would not bring back his daughter or his wife of his friends. They were all gone and nothing would bring them back. Nothing at al-

His eyes looked over at something on the pavement and he walked over to it and knelt down and picked it up. It looked like part of a coast pocket flap that was to seal the pocket. It was a kind of cream colour and the only person he knew with a cream coloured coat…

Martin shot up from the ground, a mixed sense of relief and determination filling him like water filling up a tank. If he had found the bracelet on the road and this coat flap pocket on the pavement…then there was a chance his daughter was still alive, but now the question was; where had they gone?

Looking back over the rooftops, his eyes rested on Big Ben and the spires of the Houses of Parliament in the distance.

_If I were a survivor in this city, that is where I would go _he mentally said to himself.

He ran down the road in the direction of the enormous clock tower. If he was right, he would finally be reunited with his family and friends!


	22. Victory at what cost?

**Meanwhile, at the Thames River outside the Houses of Parliament**

"Alrigh' everyone stop 'ere,"

The crowd of people breathed sighs of relief that they could finally rest their legs and collapsed onto the ground or the nearest bench. They had finally made it to the Thames, the mighty river of which London was built around. Across the street from the crowd, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament stood tall.

"Let's sit down here, Lizzy,"

On the pavement, Lizzy sat down with her mother. Mr and Mrs Perkins sat down on a bench near them, breathing sighs of relief to rest their old limbs from the non-stop walking. Mr Twitches was resting on their laps. Their clothes were dusty and dirty, but they did not care. They had all just escaped with their lives earlier on when that tripod attacked their crowd. It had fired on them and killed most of the crowd, capturing and trapping many, but about fifty people, including Lizzy, her mother and Mr and Mrs Perkins, had managed to escape. Where the tripod was now, they had no idea, but they hoped it was far away.

"Oh dear," Rebecca said, holding up the torn remains of a pocket on Lizzy's coat. "We'll have to throw this away when we got home," she said.

"Only if our home is still standing," Lizzy replied.

The fairies had flown the last few hundred feet to give their wings a stretch, but were careful not to fly around for they would waste pixie dust if they did. They gazed around at the buildings surrounding the street they were on. A few houses and office buildings still stood, a partially destroyed blacksmith was on a street corner and, when they looked at the enormous structure nearby, they saw the damage had not been limited to the buildings around it. There were a few gaping holes up and down the front, sides and back of the Big Ben clock tower. A few larger holes were just visible along the sides of the Houses of Parliament and one of the spires was gone. Although they could not see it, the roof was riddled with holes, most of them caused by large pieces of rubble falling from the Big Ben clock tower. The hands on the tower were gone as well; save for a tiny metal hand section of what had been the hour hand. It was hard to imagine that this large building had once been the seat of power for the government of the most powerful country in the world, but now it was a ruin, a shell of It's former self.

"Martians seem to have stopped their will to destroy everything," Rosetta said.

The others nodded in agreement. "Wonder why?" Clank asked.

"They might have decided to leave the city," Silvermist suggested. "I mean, they've been searching it for days and they've probably caught all they can and decided to leave,"

"Can't be," Iridessa replied. "After that one that saw us earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if more of them were looking for us now,"

"I just hope they don't find us," Vidia piped up. "If we get attacked again like last time, we're all dead,"

"Hey guys," Terence said, drawing their looks to him as he was hovering near a tree covered in red weed. "Come over here,"

They flew over. "What is it, Terence?" Silvermist asked.

"Look at the weed," he replied; grabbing a piece of it and pulling it off, though this time it came off with barely any problem. The others stared at it with wide eyes. It was not the colour of blood anymore. Now it was more of a faded colour, more grey as if…

Terence pushed his fingers down on the bit of red weed in his hand and it crumbled away into dust, the remnants being blown off his hand by a light wind.

"It's dying," he said.

Whilst the fairies were gazing at the tree and devastation around them and everyone was sitting down to rest, an officer and a few soldiers, the last in the crowd that had survived the attack, who were standing near the wall in which gave people a view of the Thames below, were debating over what to do.

"Where do we go now, sir?" one of the soldiers asked the officer.

"I don't really know at the moment," he replied. "I was expecting other groups of survivors to meet us here," he sighed. "We'll wait here for a few hours, let the people get some rest, then we'll go across the Thames and try and find any other survivors,"

"What if we don't?" another soldier inquired.

"Then I don't know what we're gonna do," the officer said.

Back on the pavement, Lizzy looked up at the Big Ben tower and sighed. She was still worried for her father. She had not seen him for days and was beginning to think she would never see him again.

"Are you okay, Lizzy?" her mother asked her, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"No, mother," Lizzy replied, looking up at her with sad eyes. "I'm worried about father," she said. "What if we never see him again?"

Rebecca gently patted her daughter's shoulder. "Don't worry," she said. "We'll see him again,"

Truth was, she too was uncertain of whether she would see her husband again, but she did not want to admit that in front of her daughter in case she worried her further, but still, she was scared as well. What if they did never see Martin again? What if he was…dead? She could not even begin to imagine how Lizzy would feel if her father was dead.

Iridessa sighed and looked at the others. "Maybe we try and cheer her up," she said. "Or at least comfort her,"

"Not to be rude, Iridessa, but I don't think there's much we can say," Terence told her.

"Well, we can't leave Lizzy to look like this," she said. She sighed in frustration. "I wish Tinkerbell and the others were with us,"

"Don't we all, sug," Rosetta mumbled under her breath.

Meanwhile, Silvermist, however, was drawn to something else. Over in the blacksmith across the road next to a tall office building, there was a light that was flickering. What was it? Her curiousness drew her over towards the blacksmith. When she reached it, she saw the light was coming from behind a small pile of rubble at the back of the blacksmith, having once been part of the ceiling, but there was a huge hole there now. Silvermist flew over to the pile of rubble, being careful not to be caught by a few ropes, used to hold horses whilst horseshoes were being placed on them, dangling down from the ceiling, and looked over the other side. Oh, it was just a small fire.

"Can't believe I got distracted by a few flames," she said to herself, stifling a laugh.

Just as she was about to fly off, a whirring sound from above drew her attention. Looking up, she saw a huge metallic bulk leaning against the office building next to the blacksmith. Silvermist flew up to the hole and, upon seeing it close up, gasped.

It was another tripod, but it appeared to be down. It was not moving and there were no noises coming from inside it.

"Whoa!" she awed at the large machine, unaware of movement below her. "I've gotta tell the others about this!"

Suddenly, the whirring sound filled her ears again, only this time it was much louder, and became even louder when a metallic tentacle suddenly lunged at her from below. Thankfully, Silvermist saw it and dived out of the way, narrowly avoiding the end of the tentacle. Breathing heavily from shock, she watched the tentacle turn to face her, a small light on the end of it staring directly at her as if it were an eye of a monster.

Then, the officer building began to shake slightly. Silvermist looked at the machine and her eyes widened as it rose up from the building, rubble falling from it and from the enormous hole in the side of the building, though it began to stagger slightly as it rose up on all three legs. For a moment, the tripod, just coming below the top of the roof, stared ahead as if it had forgotten about Silvermist, who stayed rooted to where she was as if she was a flying statue. Then, it looked down, the neon green eyes staring directly at her and not even a second passed before the tentacles, which were mostly waving about in mid-air as they had been before, lunged down towards her. Silvermist dodged them and flew back into the blacksmith, zooming towards the entrance. Behind her, the tentacles swung through the roof, creating a thundering crashing noise that tore the building in two.

Those on the road outside the Houses of Parliament looked over at the blacksmith to see a cloud of dust be thrown up into the air.

"What the Hell was that?" a man asked.

Lizzy, her mother and the fairies got up and looked over at the dust cloud. Just a second later, Silvermist re-joined the group, panting with fear and adrenaline.

"Sil, what's going on?" Iridessa asked her friend.

"A…A tr…tripod," Silvermist breathed. "There's…o-one over…there!"

As soon as she stopped talking, as if on cue, the officer building seemed to explode outwards, rubble being thrown across the road and some hitting the sides of the Houses of Parliament. Another enormous dust cloud was thrown up into the air, but it was soon brushed aside as an enormous machine swept through it.

"Oh my God!" the officer near the riverside gasped.

"And 'ere we are with barely anything to defend ourselves with," one of the soldier said.

The machine staggered out from the ruins into the road. It was obvious to tell it was weak, but even so, it was still a threat. For a moment, it struggled to stay upright, sparking a bit of hope within the crowd that it would topple, but that little tingle of hope was quickly removed when the tripod regained It's footing and looked over at the crowd. The heat ray aimed at the crowd, the lighthouse light activating on the front.

"Everyone take cover!" the officer shouted.

Rebecca grabbed her daughter and ran with her behind the bench, ducking down behind it with Mrs Perkins and Mr Perkins and Mr Twitches. The fairies joined them. Around them, other people began shouting and running for cover. Lizzy closed her eyes and tensed herself for the wave of fire that would sweep out from the tripod onto the crowd.

_CRASH! _Lizzy, her mother, Mr and Mrs Perkins, Mr Twitches and the fairies looked out from behind the bench to see the heat ray laser collapse onto the ground with loud crash, The tripod staggered into It's left side for a moment, but quickly regained It's footing again and looked down at the now destroyed laser. Fury must have gripped the Martians inside because after a second, the machine suddenly advanced, though staggering and almost stumbling several times, towards the crowd, who began to panic and quickly fled from behind their cover. The tripod itself seemed to be radiating with anger like a radiator. If it could not incinerate the Humans, then it would capture or crush them all, even if they were the last ones it would claim.

"Quick! Run!" Mr Perkins said as the tripod moved past the bench to attack a group of people running across the road towards the Houses of Parliament.

He and his wife ran out from behind the bench towards a group of buildings opposite the Houses of Parliament side with Big Ben. However, as Rebecca, Lizzy, Mr Twitches and the fairies went to follow, the tripod turned It's head, It's huge neon green eyes looking directly at the bench, directly at those behind it. At once, the machine turned and stomped towards them. Rebecca grabbed her daughter and threw herself and Lizzy to the ground, narrowly missing a swipe from one of the metallic tentacles as it hit the bench, throwing wooden planks through the air like missiles. Mr Twitches ran towards the tree and climbed up it. The fairies flew up to the tree as well.

"Everyone alright?" Terence asked.

They all nodded, breathing heavily from the shock of almost being killed.

A scream from below drew their attention. Rebecca and Lizzy were backing away from the tripod as it moved towards them, lowering down towards them, It's tentacles waving menacingly about in mid-air.

"Get behind me, Lizzy," Rebecca said, pulling Lizzy behind her.

"Mother, what are we to do?" Lizzy cried as they back away.

"We'll be okay," Rebecca said calmly to her daughter though it was obvious they were doomed.

The fairies in the tree above watched all this with horror. "We have to do something!" Rosetta exclaimed.

"How?" Clank asked. "We can't do anything against that tripod,"

Terence looked around for something, anything to use against the machine! There were only a few tiny branches, not much of a sword or axe or anything against the tripod.

"Guys, use these!" he said, pulling them off and throwing them to the others.

"Sticks?" Silvermist said disapprovingly at the piece of wood in her hand. "What use are these gonna be?"

"We have to try and draw it away," Terence told her. "At least long enough for Lizzy and her mother to get to safety,"

The others looked as though he was crazy, but now was not the time. Reluctantly, they all flew down from the tree, wielding their weapons, and began flying around the tentacle, hitting it with their sticks or waving them at it. Their tactic seemed to have worked because the tripod reared back slightly, bringing back the tentacle with it.

"C'mon, Lizzy, now's our chance," Rebecca said, leading her daughter by the hand towards the nearby building. Lizzy watched her friends as they flew around the tentacle, swiping at it with their sticks like Roman soldiers cracking their whips at a lion in the coliseum. The tentacle responded to all this by swinging back at them through the air. The fairies dodged the tentacle, though barely.

"Oh, please don't get hurt!" she pleaded.

Terence dived sideways to avoid another swing from the tentacle, narrowly avoiding having his head taken off his shoulders. He flew above the tentacle, looking down at it, and growled quietly to himself. It had worked in getting Lizzy and her mother to safety, but there was no way they could stop this thing through hitting it with sticks. They had to do something! Anything that would bring this thing down!

"Guys, get away from it!" he shouted down to them.

The others flew away from the tentacle and high above the ground, out of reach of the tentacles.

"So what do we do now?" Iridessa asked as the tripod moved away to attack the rest of the crowd scattered further up and down the street.

"There has to be something we can use," Terence replied. "Is there anything like rope or big stones or anything around here?" he asked.

"There's a lot of rope in the blacksmith," Silvermist pointed out. "We can use that,"

"Alright," Terence nodded. "Sil, Clank and Iridessa, get the rope, quick. Me, Rosetta and Vidia'll try and keep the tripod from the people,"

The three fairies nodded and flew over to the remains of the blacksmith to get the rope. Terence, Vidia and Rosetta flew over towards the tripod, a great, but fragile sense of hope filling them.

"D'you think whatever you have planned will work, Terence?" Rosetta asked him.

"It's better than nothing," he replied.

Across the road, Silvermist, Clank and Iridessa reached the pile of rubble that had been a blacksmith and began searching through the pieces of it.

"Found it!" Iridessa said after a few seconds. She grabbed it and began to pull as hard as she could but the rope was only coming out slowly. "C'mon, guys help me!"

Silvermist and Clank flew over and grabbed the rope and began to pull it out. Gradually, it became looser and very quickly they had pulled out a very long rope. Judging by the length, it was about thirty feet long in all. Usually, they looked smaller when they were made into circle shapes in blacksmiths, but stretched out, they were very long indeed. Now they had to use it.

"That is big," Clank said, looking at the length of the rope with awe in his eyes. He had never seen anything this long before so it was quite amazing.

"It sure it," Silvermist replied. "Okay, we have to get this back to the others quickly," she said.

She, Iridessa and Clank grabbed the end of the rope and flew with it back towards the tree.

Vidia, Rosetta and Terence were now flying around the head of the tripod, hoping that It's neon green eyes would be distracted by them. The tripod was being halted, but only for a few seconds before it would advance toward the people again, who began to run out of places to take cover. Soon they would be left out in the open and that would mean almost certain death.

"C'mon, we can do it!" Rosetta exclaimed. "WHOA!" she yelled, ducking to avoid a swipe from a tentacle.

"VIDIA WATCH OUT!" Terence yelled.

Vidia, who was flying near the eye of the tripod, looked behind her to see the tentacle coming towards her. She shot upwards, but her foot was not quick enough.

WHAM! The end of the tripod slammed into her foot with such force that it threw Vidia through the air towards the tree. Pain was flaring up and down her from where the tentacle hit that she felt paralysed to move her wings. She closed her eyes tightly and tensed herself for a head on collision with the tree.

"I'm sorry, Tinkerbell," she muttered to herself, thinking they would be the last words she would ever speak.

But then, just as she was about to hit the tree, two pairs of hands grabbed her and pulled her away, resting her down onto one of the branches. Vidia opened her eyes and gasped who stood over her.

"Fawn! Bobble!" she exclaimed. "You're both okay,"

"And by the looks of it, we came just in time," Bobble replied.

A squeak came from nearby and Cheese scuttled across the branch over to Vidia and nuzzled his head against hers. Vidia laughed.

"I'm glad you're all okay," she said, giving Cheese a little rub on the top of his head. "We thought we had lost all of you,"

Fawn and Bobble gave each other sad looks. They knew that one member of their team was no longer with them. Vidia quickly noticed the looks on their faces but before she could answer…

CRASH! The four, along with Mr Twitches who had jumped onto their branch, looked down at the ground to see one of the tentacles of the Martian tripod slam into the ground, narrowly missing Rosetta by just a few millimetres. Iridessa, Silvermist and Clank flew up to the pavement on the other side of the street a few metres from the tripod. Terence and Rosetta flew down to them.

"We found the rope," Iridessa said, holding it up. "It's long enough, I hope,"

"It's good," Terence replied. "Now we just have to try and wrap it around the legs of the tripod,"

"We'll need more people to help us," Clank said.

"Don't worry, Clanky, we'll help," a familiar voice said and the group looked up to see Vidia flying back towards them with Fawn and Bobble with her.

"Bobble!" the others exclaimed, looks of amazement and upmost happiness on their faces. "Fawn! Your all okay!"

"And ready to help," Vidia said as she, Bobble and Fawn landed and were greeted by tight hugs from their friends. "They saved me and Cheese is sitting up in the tree with Mr Twitches,"

"So what's the plan?" Bobble asked as Clank released him.

"We've got a rope that we can tie around the legs of that tripod," Terence explained. "We have to bring it down before it crushes all of the Humans,"

Bobble and Fawn looked back at the tripod and gulped. "I sounds crazy," Fawn said. "But…I'm with you guys,"

"Same here," Bobble said.

They all smiled. "Thanks guys," Terence said. He placed his hand in the middle of the group. "Faith," he said.

One-by-one the others did the same. "Trust," Rosetta and Silvermist said.

"And Pixie dust," they all chirruped.

This was it. Their plan had to work or they, along with all the Humans here, were dead.

"Let's go," Terence said.

Terence, Bobble and Clank grabbed one end of the rope and flew with it towards the tripod, which was staggering greatly as it moved down the street towards a building where a group of people were hiding, with the girls grabbing the other end of the rope. As they approached it, they flew away from each other, stretching the rope as far as they could. The rope touched the diagonally bent rear leg of the tripod and began to stretch it around the sides of the two front legs, hoping to wrap it around them and then tie it up and hope it would cause the tripod to fall over, but this was easier said than done.

"Stretch it as far as you can!" Terence shouted as loud as he could to the others as they began to stretch the rope around the legs of the machine.

The others nodded and the rope wrapped the legs, the two group meeting at the front.

A few people nearby were amazed by what they were seeing. "Are those fairies doing that?" a man asked.

"It looks like it," a young girl replied.

"How the 'ell, I though' they didn' exist," a teenage boy exclaimed.

"Well, they're 'elping us," a woman said.

The tripod staggered as one of the front legs hit the side of the rope. It reared forward slightly as the leg hit the rope. The fairies moved under the main section, a sense of hope filling them and the Humans around them. Some were even praying. The tripod tilted over to the side more, looking as if it was going to fall over. Was it?

Then, as if the light of day had been blocked out, the rear leg rose up and slammed down onto the back of the stretched rope. With one great crash into the ground, the rope was cut in two. The fairies fell to the ground when they felt the tightness suddenly fall.

"What the…?" Fawn exclaimed. "What just happened?" she asked.

"LOOK OUT!" Silvermist screamed.

The fairies dived out of the way as a tentacle swung across the ground, tearing up the cobbled stones and throwing them through the air like grenades. Dust was thrown into the air above the ground and the fairies quickly scattered as the tripod swung It's tentacles mercilessly at them, each one cutting through the air like a knife. One of the tentacles slammed into the tree that Mr Twitches and Cheese were hiding up. The two animals screeched and Mr Twitches grabbed Cheese in his mouth and jumped down from the branch to the ground, landing on his side, but he got up and ran. Behind him the tree came down with an earth shaking THUD. Mr Twitches turned to look at it with relief. Thank God he still had eight lives. Mr Twitches ran over to the building where Lizzy and her mother were hiding with Mr and Mrs Perkins and a few other people.

"Ok, what do we do now?" Silvermist asked.

"The rope's been cut, It's useless," Iridessa said.

"Not really," Bobble said, flying down to the broken half of the rope below them. He grabbed it and flew back to the others and held it up to them. "It's actually more useful now. If we can tie it around two of the legs of the tripod, we can pull it over,"

Hope seemed to return to the group. Yes! It was perfect. It had to work and probably would.

"Which of the legs do we tie it around?" Fawn asked.

Bobble looked at the tripod as it lumbered down the road towards another partially destroyed office building next to the River Thames. Most of the people were hiding in the ruins of it, but mostly on the floors above the ground. The tripod advanced toward them, the tentacles and neon green eyes of the machine fixed on them, ready to capture and destroy them.

"The front two," he said.

"Alright, let's do it," Terence said. "Girls, we'll take this one. Grab the other one,"

They nodded and flew over to the other half of the rope and flew after the boys to the tripod, which was just about fifteen metres from the building. When they reached it, they began flying the ends of it around the bottom of the feet of the tripod just a few feet above the ground and then began trying them. It took a few minutes as the tripod was still moving, but they got there in the end.

"Okay, now we gotta distract it," Terence said.

"Done," Fawn replied.

She flew back over to the tree and began picking up loose sticks and pieces of the branches. When she had a huge arm full, she flew over to the others and began handing them out.

"Not sure if this'll work," she said.

"It has to," Clank replied.

They flew up into the air and began tossing them at the back of the head of the tripod.

"Hey ya big metal tin can!" Rosetta shouted at it. "Over here!"

"Leave those people alone!" Silvermist shouted as well.

The tripod must have heard the shouting and felt the sticks because it turned to look up at them. The Martians piloting it seemed to have snapped because as soon as the machine turned round to face them, it advanced towards them, swinging It's tentacles at them. The fairies flew away from the tripod and it charged after them, ignoring the staggering-ness of It's legs. This time it was going to finish them! These fairies were a nuisance, but now they would pay for going up against it!

"Okay, now!" Terence ordered.

All of a sudden, the fairies flew back down under the tripod, dodging It's attempts to hit them with the tentacles, and grabbed hold of the ropes and began to pull, but the tripod turned around, so fast that the fairies were thrown through the air and landed on the street behind it, and began to advance towards the building again, thinking that the fairies had fled to hide in it. The fairies quickly grabbed hold of the ropes.

"C'mon, pull!" Silvermist exclaimed.

They pulled with all their strength, but were lifted through the air and brought crashing down onto the ground. As they got up, they were launched through the air again. It was hopeless and the fairies knew it, but there was nothing else they could do!

Lizzy watched this from the building with panic in her eyes as she watched her friends fail in their attempts to try and stop or at least slow down the tripod.

"Mother, we have to help!" she said.

"Lizzy, I don't think there's much we can do," her mother replied.

"Yes there is!" Lizzy begged. "The fairies are smaller than us but they're still out there trying to stop the tripod! We can help them!"

Her mother looked at Lizzy and out through the window of the building in front of them. She sighed.

"Lizzy, I don't want you to get hurt," she said. "I don't want to lose you like your father,"

"You won't, mother!" Lizzy reassured her. "Please, we have to go and help them!"

"No, Lizzy, I'm sorry," her mother said to her one final time.

Lizzy looked out the window and watched as the fairies were pulled through the air again and brought crashing to the ground. Hopelessness began to overwhelm her like water on rock. No! they could not just leave the fairies out there and let them die along with the Humans the tripod was targeting! They had to help! They had to!

No! Lizzy was not going to stand here and watch her friends fall and be hurt like this. She _was_going to help them.

Turning, she ran out through the door and across the grass towards them. Mr Twitches and Cheese followed her, also intent on helping out in any way they could.

"LIZZY!" her mother screamed in terror as she suddenly saw her daughter running toward the danger zone. She ran out after her with Mr and Mrs Perkins.

The fairies landed painfully on the ground with another thud. Groaning, Silvermist lifted her head up.

"This is hopeless!" she said to Iridessa, who was in front of her. "We can't stop it!"

"We have to!" Iridessa said. "There has to be a w-"

Suddenly, the rope was lifted up off the ground. The two, along with Fawn, Rosetta and Vidia looked behind them to see Lizzy standing at the end with the rope in her hands.

"I've come to help," she said. Below her Mr Twitches grabbed the rope with his mouth and in front of him, Cheese drove his teeth into the rope and the two began to pull on the rope with all their strength.

Their sense of hoe seemed to have been restored at a greater length. They could do it, and they would do it! They began to pull on the rope as hard as they could, but were lifted through the air and brought down with a thud onto the cobbled path.

"Lizzy! Stop!" Rebecca shouted to her daughter in fear as she and Mr and Mrs Perkins reached her.

Big mistake. Her shouting had attracted the attention of the tripod and the head shot round and stared down at the fairies and the four Humans. They all stared wide-eyed up at the machine, fixed to the spot with fear.

At the end of the street, the other members of the crowd hiding in the building were watching all this unfold.

"Oh no! It's gonna capture 'em!" a man said.

"What do we do?" a woman asked.

"We help," another man piped up defiantly.

The tripod lowered down towards the group of Humans. They backed away from the head of the machine, but fell over onto the ground. Rebecca grabbed her daughter and pulled her behind her as the tripod neared them, It's tentacles stretching towards them. Vidia shot up in front of the tentacle, but the tentacle knocked her aside to the ground.

"Vidia!" Iridessa exclaimed in panic as she watched her friend fall to the ground, but as she went to fly over to see if she was okay, one of the tentacles wrapped itself around her. She struggled fiercely, but against the metal of this machine, it was nothing. Other tentacles hovered up near her, each one holding the other girls.

The boys looked on helplessly from where they were. There was nothing they could do. The girls had been captured, Lizzy, her mother and Mr and Mrs Perkins were pinned down by the tripod and they themselves could do little to stop the machine.

Then, all of a sudden, they saw the rope they had been holding rise up. Surprised, they turned to see a group of about seven Humans holding the rope and pulling back on it with all their strength.

"Thought ya could use some help," the man at the front of the group holding the rope said to them.

The fairies nodded and grabbed the rope and began to pull with the Humans as another ten Humans rushed over to the rope and began to pull as hard as they could.

The tripod was almost pulled over as it felt the sudden tugging on It's leg and it turned to see the Humans pulling at It's leg. The tentacles, which released all of the girl fairies, shot out towards them, but the Humans either ducked or dived out of the way and resumed pulling on the rope. Below, Lizzy began to help the other fairies, including Vidia who had shaken off the pain inflicted on her by the swing from the tentacle, and Cheese and Mr Twitches pull on the rope. Another group of Humans rushed over from the building they had been hiding in and began to help. Rebecca and Mr and Mrs Perkins watched all this for a moment before finally giving in and they grabbed the rope and began to pull with all their strength as well.

The tripod felt the tugging on It's other leg and looked down at it. Fear must have gripped the Martian pilots as if they were being crushed by an invisible hand upon realising that the Humans had lured them into a trap and were trying to pull it over.

"C'mon! We can do it!" a man shouted as he pulled on the rope he was at.

Grunting and pulling as hard as they could, the Humans and the fairies and the two animals all pulled as hard as they could, hoping to put as much strain on the legs of the tripod that it would topple to the ground.

The legs of the machine were certainly feeling that strain as the Humans pulled harder on the ropes. Although it was noisy with all the grunting and shouting going on below, the noise of the legs being pulled out of their metallic sockets filled the air like a bombshell exploding. The tripod tried to wrestle It's way out of the grip of the ropes, but this time it was the one that was trapped and the Humans were not giving up. They pulled harder and harder, their mission to destroy this thing pumping adrenaline through their bodies like a sugar rush.

Then, sparks began to fly from the wires inside the connection sections attaching the legs to the main section of the machine. Smoke began to pour out of them quickly afterwards and more sparks flew. One of the legs began to bend and the tripods' struggling only made it worse, slowly loosening it from the machine. A small fire on one of the connection sections began to blaze.

Then, the fire seemed to explode out of the interior of the head as the neon green eyes cracked and burst open. At once, the tripod seemed to have lost all control of itself.

"Quick, let go!" a man shouted.

They all let go and backed away from the tripod, watching as it struggled even more to stay upright. Smoke poured out of the eyes of the head, fire raged on the sides of the main sections and it began to stumble towards the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

Then, with a loud metallic grinding sound akin to the roar of a monster, the tripod fell sideways into the bottom of the Big Ben tower, smashing through the wall and driving deep into it. The loss of the foundation at the bottom of the tower caused the steel pilings and columns above to cave in with the now unsupported weight on top of it and very quickly, the clock tower began to collapse downwards onto the machine, filling the air with a thunderous crashing sound that caused those on the street to block their ears. The noise lasted for several minutes until it finally ended.

When the Humans, fairies and the two animals looked over at the tripod again, they saw that it was covered by a dust cloud. Big Ben and part of the side of the Houses of Parliament building was gone, having collapsed onto it. Cautiously, and drawn by curiosity to see if the tripod was down, the crowd moved towards it, the soldiers and officers pushing their way to the front, their rifles aimed at the machine as if expecting it to get up and attack them again.

"Alright, keep everyone back!" the officer ordered.

"Alright, everyone stay back! C'mon now!" the soldiers began saying to the crowd.

"Hey look!" a young boy shouted, pointing at one of the smashed open eyes.

Everyone looked at the front of the machine and saw a long thin silver arm with a clawed hand at the end appear out of it. It was shaking slightly and covered with small cuts and tears. A soft hissing/growling/strangled breath noise emanated from inside the head and a second later, the body of the Martian dragged itself out of the head. The crowd saw It's weak and thin form, It's now grey coloured eyes, orangey coloured saliva coming out of It's mouth and the lighter coloured skin, which was now so pale it looked like it was changing from silver to white.

"That thing is creepy!" Iridessa whispered to the others.

"You're telling me," Silvermist whispered back, staring at the creature as it dragged itself out of the head and slumped to the ground on It's side.

A young soldier walked towards the Martian, his weapon aimed at it in case it would attack him. The Martian stared up at him as he approached and hissed weakly at him, stopping the soldier about five feet from it. The Martian narrowed It's eyes and tried to growl and move towards him, but it was too weak. It's breathing grew more ragged and weak. Then, with a final glare and a hiss at the soldier, it drew one last breath and slumped backwards onto the ground and moved no more.

The soldier stepped towards the Martian and, gingerly, prodded the creature with the end of his rifle, withdrawing a little to defend himself if it attacked, but the Martian did not. It just laid there. He did again, stopped and waited for a reaction, in which nothing happened, and then prodded the Martian again. Still nothing happened.

"I-It-It's…It's dead!" he whispered. A look of happiness stretched across his face and he turned and announced to the crowd: "It's dead! We've won!"

At once, there was an uproar of cheers and shouts of happiness as the crowd began hugging and shouting and yelling happily and patting each other's backs and such, the euphoria of happiness filling the air. The fairies began hugging each other tightly as well.

"We did it!" Silvermist exclaimed happily.

"It's finally over!" Iridessa shouted.

"We can finally go home!" Rosetta announced with happiness.

Fawn hugged Bobble tightly and for a moment he seemed shocked for her to do this, but after she gave him a smile, which he returned, he shrugged and hugged her tightly.

"We've done it," she said to him as she rested her head against his chest, relief overtaking her.

"Yes," he whispered back. "It's all over now,"

Behind the group of fairies, Lizzy embraced her mother tightly. A tear of happiness trickled down her cheek.

"Oh mother!" Lizzy cried happily. "We can finally go home!"

"Yes, Lizzy," her mother replied a small smile on her face. She was happy, but there was someone missing from all this. "If only your father was here," she said.

Upon hearing this, Lizzy sighed sadly. Yes. If only her father was here. She hugged her mother tightly and she hugged her daughter back. They missed him and they were both asking themselves the question; was he alive? They were both hoping he was, but at the same time, thoughts of the worst case scenario. What if…what if…he was d-dead?

"Lizzy!"

Lizzy looked up a little, as did her mother. "Did you hear that mother?" she asked.

"Yes, I did," she replied.

"Lizzy!" there it was again. Where was it coming from? The two were not going crazy, they were definitely hearing someone call Lizzy's name, but who?

Then, as Lizzy stood up, she spotted a familiar face coming towards her through the crowd. It was a man with brown hair and dressed in grey trousers and a white top with a green sleeveless jacket over the top. Was it…? Could it be…?

"Lizzy!" the man shouted again when he was close and Rebecca looked up and gasped. Lizzy felt tears of happiness run down her cheeks and ran forward.

"Father!"

Her mother ran after her. "Martin!"

When Lizzy reached her father, she leapt into his arms and he embraced her tightly, not wanting to let go of her ever again. He was crying happily as well.

"Lizzy!" he said. "I…I'm so happy t-to see you!" he sobbed.

Lizzy buried her face into his neck and sobbed as well. "I-I'm so h-h-happy…y-you're alive, father!" she choked.

Rebecca smiled through her tears when she reached them and Martin looked up at her. He smiled and, holding Lizzy in his arm, stood up and embraced both of them.

"Oh, Rebecca!" he sighed in relief. "I'm so happy to see you both. I thought I had lost the two most important things in my life,"

Rebecca smiled. "I'm very happy you're alive, Martin," she said. "Thank goodness your safe,"

He nodded and embraced his wife and his daughter tightly again.

Below, the fairies smiled at them as their friends' family was finally reunited. Even Vidia was smiling at this. Even though she had been scared of Martin before, now she was glad to see him alive and well. Maybe Tinkerbell was right. He was a-wait.

A sudden realisation struck her and she turned to Fawn and Bobble. Mr Twitches and Cheese ran over to the group.

"Fawn, Bobble," she said. "Where's Tinkerbell?" she asked.

Upon hearing these words, the two gave each other sad looks and Cheese gave a sad squeak, looking down at the ground. The others noticed this.

"What is it?" Terence asked, worry in his voice. "What's happened to her?"

Everyone in the group looked at the two. Bobble looked down at the ground sadly and Fawn rubbed her arm with her hand.

"Um…" she began, quickly trailing off for a moment. "Last night…we were…attacked by a tripod," she explained. "Tinkerbell…she-she drew it away, b-but then…the building she was in…the tripod fell over ad slammed into it and…and she…didn't make it out,"

Wide-eyed looks of disbelief and shock moved from one member of the group to the other. "Y-you mean?" Iridessa said, her voice breaking a little. "No, y-you're wrong! Please tell me your wrong!"

Sadly, it was not to be. Fawn shook her head sadly. "No," she said simply.

Before they knew it, the groups' happiness was replaced by sadness. Iridessa burst into tears and collapsed onto her knees, burying her face into her hands, Terence was wiping away tears from his eyes and was embraced tightly by Vidia, who began to silently cry against his chest, Clank hugged Silvermist, tears silently trickling down their faces, Rosetta cried into her hands, Fawn and Bobble embraced tightly, Bobble gently crooning her as he stroked her head as she sobbed. Cheese wiped away a tear from his eye with his paw.

None of them could believe it! Their friend was gone! She was dead.

Behind them, as Lizzy was set down on the ground by her father, she turned to look at the fairies and saw that they were crying. A look of concern spread across her face.

"Fairies…w-what's wrong?" she asked, kneeling down in front of them.

Vidia looked up at her with tear soaked eyes. Lizzy became even more concerned. "Oh, please tell me what's wrong," she said. "What is it?" she asked again.

Lizzy looked at all the other fairies, but it was then she noticed someone was missing. Concerned and little worried, she looked back down at the fairies.

"W-where's Tinkerbell?" she asked.

Vidia did not take her tear soaked eyes away from Lizzy. Even though she could not speak to Lizzy like Humans would, her eyes told Lizzy everything. Lizzy clasped a hand over her mouth. She shook her head, begging for it not be real, but Vidia nodded slightly.

"Oh!" Lizzy buried her face in her hands and began to sob.

"Lizzy," Martin said as he and Rebecca knelt down next to her. Lizzy embraced him tightly. "What is it, darling?" he asked.

"Tinkerbell," Lizzy sobbed. "S-she's…she's gone!"

Lizzy began to cry and buried her face in his neck. Martin looked at the fairies and up at Rebecca, who placed a hand reassuringly on her daughter's shoulder, and sighed. This…this was a real shock for him. He sighed again, and gently patted his daughter's back.

The whole group was filled with grief over the worst thing they had feared since all of this had begun and even more so when they were all separated.

Tinkerbell was dead.


	23. Together again

Seconds felt like hours to the group as they took in the fact that Tinkerbell, a member of their group of friends, a friend to Humans, and a creator back on Neverland, was gone, having been killed in an avalanche of rubble by a collapsing building when a tripod crashed into the building she was on the previous night. For the group and for Lizzy, it was like they had won the battle, but lost a great friend in doing so.

Vidia sniffed and wiped away a tear from her eye as she withdrew slightly from Terence, who rubbed his hand down his face, stopping in front of his mouth. A tear rolled down his cheek onto his fingers. Fawn and Bobble refused to let go of each other, feeling guilty that their friend had died and yet they had lived. They felt like they could have done something about it, but then again could they? After all, it was raining last night, preventing any of them from flying, and they had been chased over to the remains of the laboratory by the tripod and there was no way they could have gotten over to Tinkerbell in time to save her. Still though, they were mentally cursing themselves for the demise of their friend.

"What are we gonna do now?" Iridessa asked, looking at the others with a tear soaked face.

They all looked at one another, all thinking of what was to happen now that Tinkerbell was gone. How would they explain this to the other fairies on Neverland? It would be too hard and they could only imagine how it would be met among the other fairies on Neverland. She was a virtual inventor and famous person among them all. Telling everyone would make them devastated.

"I don't know," Vidia replied. "I don't know anymore,"

She rested her head against Terence's chest, thinking of Tinkerbell. They had grown into friends over the past year, but what she felt really guilty about was the argument she and her had with each other the night before this war began. Oh, she wished how she could apologize to Tinkerbell, but wishing was not going to get her anywhere now. It was too late anyway. Tinkerbell was gone, and she was just going to have to accept it, no matter how much she or the others did not want to.

As the group seemed to pull themselves together a little, Vidia suddenly raised her head up a little, looking towards the remains of the blacksmith and the office building that the tripod had destroyed earlier on. She could have sworn she heard something. She shook her head a little, no she was just imagining it.

However, a second later, she heard it again and this time her head shot up from Terence's chest, almost hitting him in the jaw.

"Whoa, what's wrong, Vidia?" he asked.

"I…I just heard something," she replied.

"You probably imagined it, Vidia," Silvermist said to her.

Vidia wanted to say she did not, but then again, she may have. Was she imagining it? If she was, why was she ima-wait! There it was again and this time Fawn and Bobble looked over in the direction of the buildings. Terence had heard it as well.

"What is that I just heard?" he asked himself.

"You don't think…?" Vidia began.

Terence shook his head. "No, I-it can't be," he replied.

As Lizzy lifted her head up, she too began to hear what the fairies were hearing. It was a jingling sound and it was quite loud, and it was getting louder. Slowly, she turned her head to look towards the buildings.

"Are you okay, Lizzy?" Martin asked her.

"I just…I swear I heard jingling," she replied.

"Are you sure It's not your fairy friends?" her mother asked.

"No, it would have been louder, mother," Lizzy replied. "This jingling sounded…far off, but-but I think It's getting louder,"

As the seconds ticked by, everyone in the group was now looking towards the buildings. They were hearing something, but what was it?

Then, a figure began to form as it came towards them. It was a girl and she was flying. She had blonde hair and was wearing a green leaf dress. Could it be? The eyes of the group and Lizzy and her mother and Father widened as they saw the figure as well. Was it?

"Guys!"

"TINKERBELL!"

It was Tinkerbell! Her dress was torn at the sides and she had several cuts and bruises up and down her arms and legs. A small cut was on her cheek and she looked tired, but she was okay.

At once, everyone in the group lunged at her and were pulling her into hugs and crying happily that she was alive and such.

"I can't believe you're alive!" Fawn said.

"We thought you were dead," Silvermist said, pulling her into an embrace.

Iridessa then grabbed her and hugged her tightly. "Oooh!" she said. "Don't you ever do that to us again!" she said sternly, but tightened her hug.

"Oh, Miss Bell, we're so glad you're okay," Clank said to Tinkerbell when Iridessa had released her and he pulled into a tight embrace, which Tinkerbell found painful and she patted his back and was relieved when he released her.

"It's good to have back with us, sugarcane," Rosetta said to her, hugging her.

"Yeah, we're glad your back, Tink," Terence said, hugging her.

"Thank the Hollow you survived, we thought you'd been crushed when that house collapsed," Bobble said to her.

"I almost was," Tinkerbell said when she withdrew from Terence. "When the house collapsed onto me, I managed to fly under a light bit of rubble. After that I passed out and woke up this morning and flew all the way here, hoping I would find you, and I'm glad I did,"

The others all smiled at each other. Their sadness was gone and it was replaced with grins and smiles and a sense of happiness once more. They were all here and safe. They had all made it through.

Tinkerbell turned and flew up to Lizzy and hugged her against her cheek, to which Lizzy placed a hand gently on her back, almost covering her entire body.

"Thank goodness you're okay, Tinkerbell," she said as she held her in her hand and moved her away from her face. "We thought we had lost you then,"

Tinkerbell shook her head and flew over to Martin and gave him a hug on his cheek as well. He chuckled slightly.

"Oh, It's good to see you live and well, Tinkerbell," he said. "And let me introduce you to my wife,"

He stood up and held his hand with Tinkerbell near his wife, who smiled. "Hello, uh…Tinkerbell," she said, smiling a little. "My name's Rebecca, I'm Lizzy's mother," she said, holding up her finger, which Tinkerbell shook with her hand and said something to her, which was a jingle to Rebecca. "Um, what's she saying?" she asked.

"She's saying hello to you, mother," Lizzy said, smiling at her.

"Oh, of course," her mother replied, laughing a little. "Very nice to meet you, Tinkerbell,"

Tinkerbell nodded and flew back down to the ground, landing in front of Vidia. She smiled meekly.

"Hey, Tinkerbell," she said.

"Hey, Vidia," Tinkerbell replied. She paused for a moment before she spoke. "Listen, Vidia, I've wanted to say something to you about that argument we had," she said.

"So have I, Tinkerbell," she replied. She sighed. "I'm sorry, Tinkerbell,"

"No, Vidia, I'm the one who should be sorry, I shouldn't have started on you like that," Tinkerbell protested.

"Yeah, but I'm the one who said that you should have stayed here and lived with the Humans and what I said about them," Vidia replied. She sighed again. "You were right. I was being to accusative and stupid. They are good people and…and I wish I had learned that sooner,"

"Vidia," Tinkerbell hovered over to her friend and rested a hand on her shoulder. "We're both sorry for what we said to each other. They are good people, which you've admitted, but I should have left you to learn that, so It's kind of me that should be saying sorry,"

Vidia smiled a little and looked up at her. "Well, like you said, we're both to blame," she said and she embraced her tightly. "I'm glad you with us, Tinkerbell," she said.

Tinkerbell embraced her as well. She felt a tear roll down her cheek. "Same with you, Vidia," she said, feeling happy and safe once again for the first time in days. A short, but hellish time.

All around them in the city of London, other tripods had or were collapsing and survivors were finally coming out and asking each other and themselves what had brought them down. A few had the answer, but they would explain it later. For now, they would celebrate victory over this alien menace and finally go home to rebuild their shattered lives.

After many days of fighting, running and absolute Hell, the war between Great Britain and Mars, a war between two worlds was finally over, and Humanity had emerged as the victor.


	24. Reconstruction

**Three weeks later**

**Hyde Park, London**

A new and bright sunny day had risen over Great Britain. The sun was shining in the clear blue sky, a gentle summer breeze was blowing through the air and all of nature seemed to be enjoying it to the full. After all, it was a new start for nature and Humanity all over Great Britain after what had happened to it.

Within the last few days of the last of the tripods falling in London, the last of the Martians across the country had fallen, ending the war and the invasion. Reconstruction began in the areas that were clear of the Martians and it was now underway all over the British Isles. Slowly and gradually, Great Britain, with help from It's European neighbours like France, Germany, Holland and from It's possessions across the world, the country was getting back on It's feet and clearing away the rubble and death left behind in the fighting. The total death toll for the British was unknown, as it was still continuing, but it was so far estimated to be around about 3-5 million, but with many vaporized and many bodies having probably decayed by now, the exact death toll probably would never be known.

However, the rest of the world had been lucky. The reports of meteorites and green stars seen in the skies over other countries across the world had been from frightened people who had heard what was going on Great Britain and feared their countries would be next, and the devastation that had been reported had come from rioting crowds in the towns and villages, but nothing in any of the other countries across the world had been destroyed by the Martians. For Humanity, it was a relief and a total victory.

For the Martians, it was a total defeat for them. All of their machines had fallen or been destroyed, all of their crew members were dead and the red weed they had been planting to replace the plant life on Great Britain, and eventually the world, had died and crumbled away as well. The war for who would win possession over Great Britain had been a victory and a saviour for Earth for if the Martians had won, not only would they defeated the greatest country with the largest empire Earth had so far seen, but they would gained a foothold from which they could have launched future strikes against the world. Everyone on Earth was safe now and life was beginning to return to normal.

In Hyde Park, a few children ran along the gravel pathway, playing tag. A few adults, mostly couples, were walking about as well, talking to each other about what they had been up to recently. Hyde Park had not really changed much, apart from a new addition to it, which was placed in the middle of the park in the gravel pathway.

That addition was one of the Martian tripods. Standing tall and proud, it towered over most of the buildings in London. Three weeks before, it would have been moving about, destroying and killing at will, under the control of beings not of this Earth, but now it stood as a statue, staring ahead through It's clear eyes, the neon green glass having been smashed, like a guard that was witching over London. It was also a memorial to those who had been lost in the Martian invasion for on the ground at the feet of the tripod rested a stone plaque that read: _**'In dedication to those lost in the Great War against the evil from the neighbour of our homeworld,"**_

"It is amazing, isn't it,"

A group of three people walked up the gravel path towards the front of the tripod, looking up at the enormous machine. It was Martin, his wife Rebecca and Lizzy, who was walking in front of them. Around them were the fairies. They had come down to London to visit the monument. As Rebecca's home had been destroyed, she had decided to live out in the country, much to Lizzy's joy, with her husband. It seemed that something good had happened to the Griffiths family out of all this. Despite coming close to death, being separated and watching hundreds of other be vaporized and crushed and gassed, they had all come together as a family again.

All of them were staring up at the tripod with awe. Up close, it was amazing to see them. From now, it would barely be easy to note that just weeks ago this machine would have been causing mayhem and death across the city. Now, though, it was just a monument, one that would forever be a mark on the British Isles.

"Yes, it certainly is," Rebecca replied.

"It is amazing to look at up close when It's not moving," Lizzy said.

Around her, the fairies were awe inspired by this machine as well.

"Looks amazing up close," Silvermist said.

"Yeah, it does," Fawn replied.

Flashbacks of what had happened to them all those weeks ago filled their minds as they stared up at the machine. They were relieved to be alive after coming so close to these machines. The fairies of Neverland were also returning to Britain, or the Mainland as they still referred to it, to aid in rebuilding the shattered nature of the world. It would take a lot of time. A year, two, maybe even more than that even with all of the fairies helping, but eventually they would get there.

Tinkerbell sighed. "Well, it's been an experience for us this year," she said.

"Definitely," Terence replied, flying up next to her. "Well, I'm just glad everything's back the way it was,"

"Not exactly everything," Rosetta piped up. "We've got a lot of work ahead of us in fixing what the Martians did,"

"Don't worry, Rosy," Iridessa reassured her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "We'll make it through,"

"Yeah," Tinkerbell said. "As long as we all work together, we'll make it through,"

The group all smiled at each other and looked back up at the tripod, the metal armour shining brightly as the sunlight beamed down upon it.

It had been one lethal summer for Britain and the fairies, but as long as they stuck and worked together, the Human infrastructure and the nature of Great Britain could rebuild.


End file.
